Elder Rasband (again)

Okay well this week was very uneventful. On Thursday we had a stake wide meeting with Elder Rasband who spoke to us about temple and getting to love the temple even more! It was a really good meeting and I really enjoyed. We had some really good lessons this week and got to teach some people and have them touched by the spirit. We will be having another Baptism on Sunday and that will be the brother of the person who was baptized last week. So that is very exciting and we are glad to see that happening. Honestly one of the most stand out things that happened as well was that our car was in the service for 2 days... That sucked but oh well it needed to happen. It was also Elder Gramus birthday on Friday and so we had a Braai with some members! So all in all it was a good week! I love you all! 

Elder Cowan

Baptism, Temple, Interviews, Blessings, and Rasband

This week was such a awesome week!! There was just so much that went on and so many great experiences. To start on Sunday we had a baptism of Duduzile! She is a really awesome new convert who has such a great backstory! She is really an inspiration to me! But the Baptism went very well and she was happy to finally get that done after three years. On Friday we were able to head out to the temple to have a session. It was awesome and it was truly a spiritual experience. I learned some new things and I was able to just soak in everything. We had interviews with our mission President this week and we were able to help Sister Leavitt out with making cookies for zone conference coming up next week. The interview went well it was different to what I am used to with President Dunn but it was good. We gave about 4 different blessings this week to people. I was the one to give three o them! One of them was to Sister Karen from Katlehong! She is in Hospital and the Katlehong missionaries could not get to her so they asked us to give it. It was really good and is was good for her she said to see me. Lastly yesterday we were able to have a special mission training with Elder Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. What a amazing meeting. We all got to meet him and shake his hand as well as we heard from him about the Holy Spirit which was his conference talk recently. All in all it was a amazing week and I felt the spirit so strongly! I love you all and stay well!!

Elder Cowan

Making Cookies with Sister Leavitt

Skyping and Broken Wings

Well this week was a very awesome and rewarding week. I will start out with Tuesday. So on Tuesday we were able to go to a center called Broken Wings. This is a place that Adults who have some sort of disability can go and have fun and be taken care of. Basically a day resort for those people. It was really cool to interact with them and be able to listen to them sing! Each one of them has there own sound they like and like to sing so they went around and they sang for us! It was really cool!! So we will be going there every week to do service there and get a free lunch which is always a plus! But yeah it was really touching to see all of them express their love for God and Jesus Christ. So yeah HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! For all those who are mothers of sorts out there. It was really nice to be able to Skype home and see the Family and talk to them!! I hope every one is doing well and staying safe. South Africa has had a cold spell this past week and I am freezing my bottom off here. It has been rainy and over cast for the past few days so I have been wearing a Jersey ( sweater) so that has been rough! But oh well!! Yeah I miss you all and I hope you all stay well and safe! Love ya! 

Elder Cowan

Germiston

Well Germiston (my new area) is really cool!! I am really enjoying so far in the fact that we are getting referalls like crazy as well as teaching basically all day! SO that means hardly any contacting!! YAY!!!! Haha But yeah it is a really sweet area. We have like 4 people on date and some we are planning to put on date. We have about 15 or so progressing investigators and yeah! It is awesome. We spend a lot of our time in a township called Buhle Park. It is actually very small compared to Katlehong but it is awesome. The Church is really growing here and it has a lot of potential. But yeah there really isnt much to write about. We will be having a baptism on the on the 21 of May which is exciting and yeah. In general I am surviving and Loving mission! I cant wait to talk to the Family this Sunday Love you!!!

Elder Cowan

Transfer's

Well this week we were able to receive our transfer news. Drum rollllllllll........... I am leaving! So I am heading out to Germiston and Alberton. Which is actually right next door to my last area. So I will be moving into the same flat complex that I was in before. So I am excited. I was able to say good bye to some members this past week as well. Not as many as normal due to the fact I was here for such a short time and the members didnt associate much with us even though we tried. Anyways Elder Palkki will be covering Randburg, Sandton, Weltevreden, and Ruimsig. That is 4 wards with two missionaries. He will be paired with Elder Wolfgramm and they willbe together for I dont know how long. My new companion is Elder Gramu. He goes home this next transfer so I have to make him work his butt off for 6 weeks. This week was really nice we were able to see the Wills family who the father is Excommunicated and the wife is inactive and the Kids are not members. They invited us to teach the Kids so we did. It went very well and we were able to break down some old barriers that got put up by other missionaries. Honestly that was the highlight of the week. Nothing super crazy has been happening just packing really! I love you all!! 

Elder Cowan

 The Pienaar's (Members from the Randburg area)

Zone Conference, Temple and Service

Well this week was exciting due to the fact that we were busy doing a lot of things as well as missionary work. Well in all respects it is all missionary work but yeah! Anyways at Zone Conference we were able to see a lot of old folks from the former areas and districts. It was awesome I was able to catch up with a lot of them and it was nice. We had some reminders on the rules because some missionaries have seemed to forget some things. But it went well and I enjoyed. We were able to get flu shots which were not that bad which also was a plus. Anyways the temple was amazing as always!! Here are some great pictures from that with myself and the District. We had a great session though and were able to be very much uplifted and definitely felt the spirit. We were able to have two different serice projects take place. One was painting and sanding this fence for a member! That was very exciting.... Not really but it was good!! Also we participated in a ward service for the Ruimsig ward. That went well. We were able to help out at a library and do a lot of yard work! It was pretty nice. It looks good! Unfortunately in both instances we left our cameras. But yes it was good and we survived. Well nothing much on the normal side. We contacted a lot and found hardly anyone but maybe there was something there. Also on Sunday we met with our investigator Felix and we were able to put him on Date for baptism. So that was awesome as well!! Anyways I love you all!! 

Elder Cowan

Easter and Exchanges

This week was just like any other week. To start the week off we had exchanges which occurred on Tuesday. I went with Elder Wolfgramm to the Randburg/Sandton area and Elder Palkki stayed in our area with Elder Shepardson. Elder Wolfgramm and I decided it was time to go and contact Sandton CBD (Central Business District) which is the richest square mile in all of Africa. As we decided this we also thought yanno white shirts and ties really are under dressing here so lets wear suits. So we suited up and contact for around three hours there. It really was one of the better days on mission. It was actually really fun and we felt really good as we did it. Considering people wear suits around in Sandton we really didnt stick out to much and we were able to gain the respect of some of the people that we talked to. Especially we were talking to this one guy and we said we are not Jay Dubs or Jehovah's Witnesses and he said I can tell you are in suits. So that really stuck out and it was kind of funny. But yeah throughout the week nothing super crazy happened. We just had our normal contacting and lessons. Nothing new has came up so far. But we finally got some people to come to church this week. Easter was literally a normal day for us and yeah we were unable to see anyone. But anyways I love you all!! 

Elder Cowan