March 31, 2014

Hi Erin!!

You are the best for writing me! Sounds like Mom and Dad are starting to get a little lazy ;). I guess we´ll see if we even still write by the end of my mission. I may have to just not Skype on Mother´s Day. .  . Haha just kidding. 

First news for the week is transfers! I am staying here in B2, but Elder Galeano left me to go to Alcorcón (a suburb to the south). Don´t worry though, I sent him the scriptures you sent. That was really sweet of you, thank you for thinking of him! :) 

My new companion is Elder Forsyth from Colorado. Pretty cool!

I´m not too sure what to share from this week. The only investigators we have right now are Andrea and Fernando. Andrea is doing good but we haven´t been able to meet often this week because of her exams. Also she slept through church even when we called her to wake her up. Grr. But we are going to get her coming. She is super good and she is already pretty close to one of the best families in the ward. Fernando is. . . tough. He is totally closed to the Gospel but open to listening to us. It was interesting because we were trying to commit him to read the Book of Mormon and he was trying to make all these excuses but we dismissed every one of them until he was left with nothing. Even his wife helped us out. He tried to say that he couldn´t read because of the situation his family is in right now and Katty (his wife) turned to him and said I´m in the same situation but it doesn´t keep me from reading. Basically he just does not want to do it. I think he´s scared to find out that what he has believed all his life isn´t right. He´s afraid to change and he´d feel like he was going back on centuries of tradition in his family. But little by little I think the spirit will open his heart and mind. I am praying a lot for that to happen. I know the time will come because I was prompted to promise the family that if they pray for him together as a family he will accept the Gospel some day. And they are keeping their part of the promise. I don´t know when it will happen, but it will. 

Sadly we haven´t been able to see Jennifer for over a week now. I´m worried we scared her away by placing a fecha with her. Hopefully we can rebuild and help her out more. Sadly no one came to church this week, just Bryan.

There was a ward activity on Saturday for Father´s day (it´s in March here). It was pretty fun and they gave us dinner. Andrea was going to come, but didn´t show in the end. On Friday we had an awesome little birthday party for Joaquin. He turned 54! It was so much fun! We brought a couple of little cakes and he surprised us with some fancy pastries. We gave him a framed photo of his baptism and a few ties of ours as a present and he loved it! He really liked the picture and put it up in a visible spot right away. It was super fun to celebrate with him and Emilia for a little while. They are very special. 

Yesterday was Elder Galeano´s birthday and his last day here in the area, so we spent the day doing the good-bye tour as they say. We visited a lot of members and converts and ate a disgusting amount of food and cake. I woke up last night and thought I was going to throw u. It was fun though. He is the kind of guy that really gets close to people, it was hard for him to say goodbye, but also good to celebrate all the wonderful relationships he has here. And that´s what the mission is about. We also surprised him with a little cake in the morning :) It´s a pig face (just for laughs) but it looks pretty scary once you cut into it. :P

Well that´s all the news for the week. We´re going to hitting the streets a lot looking for new people I can tell. That´s how it goes. Thanks for writing me and keeping me updated. Oh, and life is not basically the same! You´re trying out for a HIGH SCHOOL soccer team? Sarah is going to prom? With a BOY? She has a CAR?! What? Do her feet even reach the pedals? Sounds like things are pretty different! But, the important things are the same. Like the fact that I love you guys more than life itself and that we are going to have so much fun when I get back! I miss you too, but I´m glad we both know I´m in the right place. Thanks for your love and prayers. Take care of each other! I love you!

Elder Cousins