October 3, 2012

Hola family and friends! Greetings from. . . wait for it! . . . Madrid! I´ve been assigned to Barrio 6, the only area in the mission with a temple, and I live about 3 minutes away from it. So, I didn´t go very far, but that´s okay because this area is awesome! My trainer (more about him later) keeps telling me it´s the best area in the mission. We have a ward (barrio) of about 250 members who, I´m told, are very excited about missionary work. I haven´t meet any of them yet, but I can´t wait to. It´s going to be awesome to go to church in an actual chapel again!

My trainer is Elder Rigtrup from Washington D.C. He´s got a year and half in the mission, but is still totally focused. He is obedient and works hard. He definitely knows his way around and I´m glad to have him as my trainer.

We are in bit of an odd situation investigator wise. Somehow we have no area books or recent records or anything. We have four investigators from the last transfer (Elder Rigtrup was in this area already), but that´s it. Elder Rigtrup says 2 of them are golden and we definitely will get them baptized so I´m excited to meet them and start teaching. I hope I get to be part of a baptism before leaving. I do have transfers here (training is 12 weeks), so I think I´ve got a good chance.

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day. We got in the morning and said goodbye to the Malaga and Barcelona elders. Then we finished packing and cleaning and then waited around all morning for the president and his assistants to come pick us up. They arrived around 1:30. President Jackson and his wife are awesome! They haven´t been here long, but they know what they are doing and they are definitely inspired. (And yes, my surgery was actually one of the first things we talked about. He asked if we had meet before and I said no, but one of your colleagues operated on me and I met some of your staff). We then traveled to the mission home. It´s about a half hour away, just outside the main city in this super nice development (or urbanization). It was awesome just to be in an actual house again. What was even better was that Hermana Jackson cooked lunch for us, Cafe Rio style. And afterwords. . . brownies and ice cream. I was in heaven! They were almost as good as Mom´s. We got some training and stuff and then went back to the capilla (chapel) on the temple grounds and received our new companions and assignments.

After that we (Elder Rigtrup and Elders Plum and Peña our piso mates) got our luggage and walked over to our apartment. We spent a few minutes unpacking, etc. and then we left for my very first lesson. Our investigator´s name was Andres and he was awesome! I guess they have been teaching him for awhile and he is all ready for baptized but he is having trouble with drinking with his friends. We didn´t have very much time so wasn´t really a lesson per se. Elder Rigtrup shared a scripture and then we both bore our testimonies that he could overcome this problem with the Lord´s help and that he would more joy in the Gospel than anything else. When I bore my testimony I was overcome with love for him. It was absolutely incredible to me how much I loved him, without ever having met him before. The Spirit worked through me and I know he felt it. I know he felt my love and God´s love. The sad part about it all is he is moving and that may have been our last visit with him. That just made it even more of a testimony to me of how powerful it is to be a missionary. I may never see Andres again, but I want so badly for him to be able to change and be happy, truly happy in the gospel. I love him so much already. I hope is able to get baptized.

Well, I almost forgot the most important part! New address! Here it is:

Calle Luis de Hayos Sainz 168 9-D
28030 Madrid, Spain

So I better get a ton of mail from you all! Haha! Oh, and if you do send me a house warming package, could you throw my sweater in there? It is getting chilly here! Also, if you ever send packages you need to write Not for Resale on them, so I don´t have to pay a fortune to receive them. Gracias!

Other important thing, p-days are Wednesdays now (as I´m sure you realized). Today we went to the Prado Museum, which was pretty cool, but cost too much. Oh that reminds me, could you also send me one of my student cards? Elder Rigtrup got in free with his, and I´ve heard there are other places that works too.

Well, I think that is about all for today. I can´t wait to get out and start working with our investigators (at least 1 appointment tonight) and to tell you all about it! Wish me luck! Love to everyone, until next week!

Elder Cousins

September 27, 2012

This is it! Last P-day in the MTC! I leave sometime Tuesday (Oct 2nd) morning (whenever they come pick me up). Most likely I´ll spend the night in the mission home and then head out to my area, depending on how far it is. Sorry, I forgot to tell you all earlier. Along with that, any mail sent at this point won´t reach me in time so send it to the mission home address or wait until I know my first area address.

The truth is I am so excited to get out into the field! My Spanish my not be perfect yet and I may not know everything I need to, but I honestly feel like I am ready. I feel like I´ve learned in the MTC how to follow the spirit and I know if I remember that and do that I will bless people´s lives. I also know that the Lord has trusted me with His work here in Spain and He is not going to leave me alone to do it. I can´t wait to get out and share the joy of the gospel and form bonds of friendship that will last into eternity. Thanks for your prayers for me. I can´t wait to see where I´ll serve first!

I´m glad to hear things are going pretty well at home. That´s awesome that the girls make you a prize for your tournament! Felizidades! I have been thinking a lot lately about how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. It has been the greatest blessing in my life to have grown up in a family strong and whole in the Gospel. I´m so grateful to you for raising me to be the person I am. I know I would have a much harder time facing the challenges behind and ahead with out your examples and teachings. I hope someday I can raise a family as incredible as the one I´ve had the blessing of being in. I love you all so much, you are all examples to me and a source of strength, always.

I do remember that job shadow day. Was that Hawthorne? I remember I had read like 2 pages of the book and was like 12 years old, but for some reason, raised my hand and made a comment in class. That was totally not like me then, but I was actually pretty proud of myself. Speaking of teaching, I was wondering if it was in the mission that you realized that was what you wanted to do for a career? I seem to remember you saying you didn´t want to growing up.

Well I am about out of time. I got the letter from Erin, but I haven´t received anything from Grandma and Grandpa. Hopefully it wasn´t sent to Provo. Thanks for everything, especially your prayers. I can´t wait till next week to tell you all the news! I love you! Take care!

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!