Transfers!

Well... big news this week so if we could get a drum roll please. DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD...................... I am not getting transferred!! I am staying here in Randburg for another 6 weeks at least! But Elder Savage is getting transferred t Dobsonville which is a township! He is going there with a kid from my MTC group named Elder Wikaria from new Zealand. It will be good for Elder Savage especially because Elder Wikaira is a professional cook that was a top finalist on a world wide cooking contest! He doesn't know if he has won or not because if he knew he could spoil it. Anyways my new companion is also from my MTC group and his name is Elder Warnock! He is a good guy and I am really excited to have him here. He was the first missionary that I met that was going to be in the MTC with me. We met each other when we went and got our visa's in California! That was the highlight of the week so everything else may seem lame. But we had a Mother and Daughter who randomly showed up at church who have never been there before. They said they found out about the church online and chatted with someone and decided to come! So that will be nice! We also taught Costa this week. Not sure if i said anything about him or not. But it went well and he is learning a lot. But that really is all that happened this week Elder Savage was sick most of the week so we were in the Flat a lot and didnt really get out the Latter part of the week! But like I said I am excited to start with Elder Warnock tomorrow and get back to work! This transfer will be a really nice one I hope! Anyways hope you all have a good week! I love you all. 

Love, Elder Cowan

Another week in the book!

Well this week was pretty average! Yet for some reason it went by very very very very very very quickly! We can start with dinner last Monday which was actually very very fun! We were at the Pienaars house who are members in the ward who have a son who is serving in South Jordan  or West Jordan not to sure. Any ways they have two other sons that are back home one who is a return missionary who just got home and a younger one. The Younger one decided to take me on in a drinking contest (seeing who could down punch the fastest). He won the first one barely I beat him the second time when the whole family joined in. We both lost to the other brother who finished a whole glass in 3 seconds.... Then we went for the tie breaker... And we tied.. We found out who was the champion on Friday at sports night with the ward! And of course it was I!!! Lets see we also taught a new investigator that was a referral so that was nice! He is actually very willing to learn the gospel and he is inviting friends when we teach him. The first lesson went well and he has a lot of questions which means he is willing to learn which is good as well. We has some great Recent Convert lessons this week as well I wont go into those cause we had just answered some questions as well as teach the Plan of Salvation again. We also had some good times with members as well! One of the couples in the ward downloaded Meet the Mormons as well as a ton of Im a Mormon videos. So Elder Savage and I have something to keep us busy if the other is either sick or when we have some spare time while we eat! But yeah this week was just about the Same old stuff we normally do! Oh last night was Hilarious Elder Savage had just layed down in his bed and he had rolled over and opened his eyes and there was a big ole' cricket right next to his head! It was quite funny to hear him scream and run into the kitchen to get a container to get it out. Oh yeah it also pooped on his bed! Anyways that is all that happened! I wish everyone a good week!! love ya all!

Elder Cowan

"Crappy" week!

This week kind of sucked! The first part of the week was nice until we ate at a recent converts house and got pretty sick! The meal was like rice and some mushed up beans? Yeah it did not sit well with us at all.. Oh well. We tried getting out as much as we could but it was hard. But at the beginning of the week we had Interviews which was a nice day. President Dunn is a great guy and fun to talk to! Sister Dunn is just as awesome and had a whole seminar on making healthy smoothies. It was nice we also had some very good sweet rolls!!! but yeah we did see a new investigator that seemed very interested. Well I should say they seemed very interested. They are two sisters and both seemed very receptive! We started Five Hour church yesterday as well so that was totally fun!!! we also had a meeting at the Mission home again which was nice! But that is really all that was eventful this week so the email is kind of short.. I apologize for that. I love you all!! Have a good week!!!

Elder Cowan

MTC Temple visit with the District

Study, Study, Study... and Service

This week was pretty average. Just the normal missionary stuff. Waking up at 6:30 and "working out" and then eat some nice breakfast (usually cereal but when i am not lazy ill cook me up some scrambled eggs). Next we hop into some personal study for a hour! i have been going through the Book of Mormon and its nice! I am at Alma 20 i believe and i started a little before the beginning of this month so i am going fast but i feel as i have m new system for marking i am getting a lot out of it. After we have a hour of companionship study and head out the door usually. So this week was basically that but with a lack of lessons than a normal week. But it was still good. We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and i got to drive for a full day for the first time!! It was nice!!! Other than that we have/had two kids in the ward leavng on Mission. One (Mckay Adam) is going to cape town and he left to the JoBurg MTC on Thursday. The next leaves tomorrow (Aiden Omdahl) who is going to the Washington D.C. Spanish speaking mission. he is going to the MTC in Mexico. He is actually from the states so he is excited to serve in the Capital. Anyways this weekend sucked... On Friday we had Zone Conference and in that we had a good discussion until one of the missionaries started to say Apostate things so of course you guys knowing me told him he was wrong! Which he definitely was so that is good! I argued my point good and i walked away victorious. He is only 14 months out on mission as well! After that fun time we had no lesson the rest of that day. Same with Saturday. But on Saturday after rugby we went and did a service project with a group called Stop Hunger Now. It was cool we packaged a lot of meals for people. In fact it was over 2000. So that was fun but yeah like I said we had no success the rest of the day. Sunday the ward got split so that is kind of crappy for the ward. But very crappy for us as missionaries cause we have to work with two ward counsels as well as go to 5 hours of church....... YAY!!!.... It will be a good experience though! we will see how it goes! That is about it though so I hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Cowan

FOOD and Baptism!

Hello All,

Guess what!! I am finally sending some pictures. This last week was pretty nice as well. On Monday we went to the tallest building in all of Johannesburg it was pretty neat! I was impressed at how high up we were. You could literally see everything it was really cool. I felt a bit sketched out driving there and back though cause yanno JoBurg is a sketchy area. We drove right down the middle of the most dangerous place in the city so I was ready to get out of there. This week I also accomplished my own personal goal to not have to make dinner once. We were fed every night by the members. They must have known we were out of allotment or something.. But It happened and it was glorious. While on the subject of food i am very hungry right now and am probably going to get domino's pizza cause it is like 50 Rand for a large Pizza!!! Yeah I can eat the whole thing by my self... I can eat so much now it is not even funny! While still on the topic of food those of you who know me should know how picky i am with food! Well guess what!!! Not anymore i haven't had one thing other than some gross olives that i haven't liked! Like yesterday we had cow liver for lunch and it wasn't to bad! I am even liking Tomato (it is probably my favorite thing to eat on a sandwich) now so its great! You could probably tell how hungry i am sorry about that. I also think i am gaining weight.. I am at 80 KGs now so i dont know what that is in pounds but yeah i am fat. Lets see what else happened this week. Oh yeah the baptism went very well on sunday so that is nice! There should possibly be a picture of that as well. We had some great lessons with members as well as with our investigators. On Saturday we did about 3 hours of service all around. First off we are helping a members friend be able to read and write in English. Then we went and took some chairs back to the chapel and then went an helped set up some YW thing at the church. Anyways time to go sweat in this heat wave that hit this week! And maybe even go get some food! Hope you all have a great week! 

Love, Elder Cowan