December 16, 2013

Dear Family,

How’s it going? So, I must apologize for the lack of communication lately. There really is no excuse, I’m just having a hard time getting these letters written and sent off. Also, I imagine the mail goes a little slower around this time of year. Anyways, my deepest apologies and I hope you all still love me. :)

So, “nuevas” for this week. We are finding a bunch of new people! Which is good because we are losing some too. Así es la vida. But, we found a family that is amazing! It’s actually a really cool story. A few weeks ago the Elder’s Quorum President was helping us out with some visits, but we got fired from one, so he took us over to try to visit this family. They were being taught before he left on his mission. But they weren’t home. We tried passing by again a few days later and found out that they don’t live there anymore. So we forgot about them for a while. Then this last week we were knocking doors and found this family. We were asking them where they are from and they said the same city that Andrés (EQP) is from in Ecuador. So I mentioned him and they said, “Oh, yeah, we know him.” Turns out that it is the same exact family that he had told us about! What are the odds? I mean there are over 5 million people in Madrid itself and we are in the most densely populated part of town. And we found this same exact family? Not by chance, my friends. And they are golden! In the couple of visits we’ve had with them, they have opened up so much. Thy go all together to a different church and the dad at first said that he couldn’t accept anything not in the Bible, but yesterday we gave them each a Book of Mormon and they all promised to read. They are 4 in the family: Gustavo, the father, Silvia, the mother, Gustavo, 16 years old and Richard, 13 years old. And the sons are awesome! We actually met with them first and they have such strong  simple faith. I have such high hopes for them!

In other news, Ruth is still without a baptismal date. We met with her yesterday and set it all up for this Wednesday, but then she said something that kind of threw us off. She was talking about her church (that she really loves) and she said, “I hope you know that when I go back to Honduras, I will go back to that church.” So, we explained how baptism is a promise to the Lord to follow Him and stay active in the Church. I told her I didn’t think she should get baptized if she didn’t plan to continue in the Church. We looked up the Church closest to her house in Honduras (she said the issue was that there is no church close to her) and it is about 2 hours away by bus. She said she wouldn’t go very often. We explained that sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the Lord and that the real issue lies in her testimony of the Church. So we invited her to pray to know that this is the true church and to know God’s will for her in this issue. We’ll see what she says on Wednesday, hopefully she’ll have made a decision.

On Friday the 13^th, our investigator José dropped us. I mean I guess we knew something bad was going to happen. I called him to confirm an appointment and he said that he couldn’t meet with us anymore. He said he’s going through some hard times, but that someday he’ll come by the Church. It was all really kind and sincere, but it was still a bummer. He has so, so much potential! And a wife who doesn’t like religion. So pray for him.

I think that’s about the major news for this past week. Pretty dramatic week, eh? All the other investigators are pretty much the same. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll see a baptism before leaving B5 (I’m definitely out next transfer). But it doesn’t bother me. I feel really good about the work I’m doing right now. This may be the best time of my mission so far. I absolutely love this area and this ward. Things are really going right now, and even if I’m not here to see any of these amazing people get baptized, I know that I will have helped them. I will have been part of the story of their lives and conversions, and that is what matters. In that is my joy.

I love you guys and I can’t wait to see and talk to you all on Christmas! Thanks for your continued love and support and care. The mission is the best, yo lo SÉ! Take care and I’ll see you soon.

Love,

Elder Cousins