April 7, 2014

Well, the mission doesn´t change everything you know. :D It´s good to see that you´re still the same too. Hahaha, I love you :) And for the record I don´t think you or Dad is old or decrepit. Just. . . experienced. :) Haha, kidding, kidding.

Hey thanks so much for working out the whole housing thing! That sounds perfect! Oh and Matt and I will try really hard to maintain the whole "quiet study area" thing. Promise ;) As for classes mostly generals would be great. I haven´t changed dramatically my major or anything like that. But, here´s the thing. I originally was set in the Bio Engineering path, but I got scared as a little freshman and so I changed to just Biology. The thing is I want to go back to the Bio Engineering course and I´m pretty sure about it. But don´t worry about all that. For now I´ll just go with where I´m at and hopefully I should be able to switch back second semester. As for classes to sign up for, the easiest would be to talk with a counselor I imagine. There should be some way to find out who my counselor is, explain to her the whole situation (like she doesn´t deal with it everyday) and get her help to set up a schedule. Like I said just getting generals out of the way sounds good to me, plus whatever bio classes the counselor suggests. I´m sure the school deals with this all the time. Hopefully it won´t be more difficult than a couple of phone calls. Let me know what else you need. 

Things are going well over here in my neck of the woods. We have found some new people through our contacting efforts (as you said there are always new people to talk to here). One of them is super cool! His name is Marco Antonio, he is taking his exams to go into the military (he wants to be a pilot), and is about 22, 23ish years old. He prays and has read the bible various times (impressive!). The lesson with him was really cool and he accepted the invitation to be baptized when he knows that what we teach is true. I´m really excited to work with him! 

The other coolest thing from this week is that we set a baptismal date with Andrea! She accepted with no hesitation as well and even started to ask about the actual service, would she need to bring anything, etc. It was amazing! I´m so grateful to the Bonifaz family, I know they have done a ton in her preparation and even more now to help her. They brought her to a session of General Conference this weekend and we got to talk to her a little bit about the temple afterword. I think it was a good experience for her and she got to know a bunch of the Young Single Adults in the stake, so that was really cool. I´m way excited for her! 

We are also teaching Carla who is really great! She is amazingly sensitive to the spirit for someone who doesn´t have the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She has a ton of faith too, and strong desires to do what´s right. We would for sure have a fecha with her as well, but she is living with the father of her son and they are not married. We don´t want to set a fecha until that is resolved so it may be a bit more of a long term process with Carla. But she really is amazing and super prepared as well.

That about covers our investigators for right now. We met a super cool guy, but he leaves to France tomorrow :( We´ll have to pass him over there. Which reminds me (France), what did you all decide about coming to get me at the end of my mission. I have more or less come to terms with the fact it is actually going to end (sniffle) so you can tell me without me getting mad. Plus I think if you are coming you have to let the mission know beforehand, like as soon as possible. I maintain my neutrality in the issue. I will be honestly happy either way. So don´t allow me or anything I´ve said before influence in that. One thing, I know how special it would be for you 2 to go to France again. So just let me know what you´ve decided :) Thanks and sorry for being mean about it before. 

Last thing: we are all pretty disappointed with Real Madrid right now, (even if they do have the BBC for a front line). I don´t know what the Atlético players are taking but the balance here has been disturbed. But I maintain myself a true fan. Even though they suck right now. 

Well, mi querida familia, that is all for this week. Os amo a todos. Bastante. Cuidaos. Until next week. I love you!

Elder Cousins

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

March 17, 2014

HeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllloooooooooooO! 

Well it finally happened. It came. The email. August 5th. *sniffle* No I already knew that was the date, but it still stinks to see that. Well, the Lord knows best, he will have even better things in store when I get back. But for now, the work continues. 

Okay, honestly I have no time today because we spent all day at the zoo (so fun!!) so I´ll do my best. First you asked about school. My plan is to head back up to Utah State and get to work. Scholarship will be a must (I don´t know how I´m going to survive even with it). Speaking of all this Matt emailed me today too asking about housing. He says his sister is helping him out with everything and he asked for mom´s phone number to give to her so that they can work out the housing thing. Basically we´re looking to room together in some sort of off campus student housing. What do you need for registration stuff? Just let me know. Also, I have to go back fall semester or I lose the scholarship. Just remembered that. It´s only deferred for 2 years.

Glad to hear that everyone is doing well.That´s crazy about the bishopric! I guess it has been a long time. Nearly the whole time we´ve lived there. Still, that will be strange to come back to a different bishop. 

Sorry that I don´t have time to talk much about the week. Just know that I have seen lots of miracles this week. The Lord is blessing us a lot. We´ve seen some really hard challenges as well, but the week has ended well and now we start another one. One miracle: we contacted a guy on Saturday who is super prepared. He said that he would really like to meet with us, that he has been looking for some more in his life. So we invited him to church and he came and stayed for all 3 hours! His name is Hernan and we are super excited for him. Hopefully we will have some fechas by the end of the week, maybe with him and with Jennifer. Hector is still having a hard time, which is really hurting Alejandra, but yesterday we met with Alejandra and she said things are getting better. She has a faith that is absolutely outstanding! She is an amazing person and the Lord is really blessing her and I am so grateful for that.

Sorry again, but I have to run. Here are some pictures of me and some monkies. And Hermana Caballero (not a monkey). 

Anyways, thanks for everything. I love you all a ton, more than I can say. Have a wonderful week and take care! 

Elder Cousins