Prideful Obedience

December 22, 2015

Hellow :)

The Rodenbergs invited us over on Christmas but they said "come whenever". I should have a lot longer to skype this time than I did last time since I'll be using my own iPad and the church's free wifi. :) This will be Elder Walker's first call as he's only been out for 4ish months. He has 19 siblings, 11 adopted and 9 biological. He's a good guy. He was just companions with Elder Gunnel, the guy I ate steaks with on that one exchange in Brandenburg. He's a bit of a clean freak. I'm the designated driver. I hate driving with the tiwi. Last night I had to drive from Bardstown to Campbellsville in pitch black Kentucky back roads in the rain. That drive is up there with the scariest drives I've done. Elder Walker was having a heart attack. 

Elder Jensen was transferred to English Indiana which is in the Corydon district. I consider Engligh the Sulphur Well of Indiana. The area's huge, and there's a ton of boonies.

This week was a fun week. We were very productive and saw some blessings come out of it. A lot of this week was taking Elder Walker around and introducing him to everyone. He just came from Jasper, Indiana where President Brough expects "5 baptisms a month". He also was just companions with Elder Gunnel, one of the most active missionaries I've met. To come from there to here, Campbellsville, was a bit of an adjustment. No matter how hard you work, this area can't produce numbers like Jasper can. On the first day here Lucy asked him to be Santa for the Christmas party. That was funny. The branch Christmas party was a huge success. There were a ton of less actives and non members there. The program itself was great. Everyone who participated did a fantastic job. There was a homeless man that Lucy invited named Joseph. He loved the program and said he'd come to church on Sunday. He came to church and loved it. After church we taught him and his mother Mary (appropriate names for the season right?) the first lesson and they accepted the invitation to be baptized. I thought that was a great experience.

Yesterday we had the Christmas conference. It was great. We had a lot of fun there. I met Elder Ashcraft there. Elder Ashcraft is friends with Dan, the other friend I made at JCW's. We played some pretty funny games that are well documented on the mission's facebook page. I was forced to eat at Mellow Mushroom (Heck) because Carrabbas was apparently "20 miles out of the way". I honestly don't know why so many missionaries like Mellow Mushroom so much. It has a cool atmosphere but the food there is not good at all.

The prideful obedience thing is something I observed with several other missionaries. Much like the contention thing I went off on back in Corydon. Speaking of contention, look up 3 Nephi 11:28-30 

"28 And according as I have commanded you thus shall ye baptize. And there shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been.

 29 For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.

 30 Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away."

I'm about half way though 2nd Nephi on my BoM highlighting activity I started a couple weeks ago. It takes me an hour to go through 2 or so chapters now. I've been getting far more out of the BoM than I ever had before with this activity. I want to apply it to all other scriptures. I really like what you said about Laman and Lemuel last week. They always fascinate me whenever I read about them.

Well, I'm nearing my 9 month mark. January 1st will be the day. This has been probably the hardest year of my life. I'll always remember how hard 2015 was. 2014 was a cake walk. This year wasn't. This year's been hard! I feel absolutely, mentally and spiritually beat up. I can understand how missionaries who are at the end are just exhausted. I could go on about the specifics of what made this year hard but I'm not going to do that. Instead I'll talk about how they've built me. I have become significantly stronger and more capable to conquer life on earth. I have realized how true the gospel is and how much it can help in life. My testimony has exploded in strength. And I've learned what is truly important. I've realized what truly has value. I can think of only 3 things that carry over from this life to the next. First, knowledge. Second, your personality or who you are. Third, your relationships with others. This world is a temporary world. It will pass away. The eternal world won't however, and there are only a few things that are here on this world that will carry over and they all have to do with your personal progression to perfection. It is absolutely vital that we focus on these. That we allow the gospel to mold them into the attributes they're supposed to be. I'm thankful for the mission. Being a missionary has been the hardest thing I've done but it's been well worth it. 

Thank you. Love you and see ya Friday!

-Elder Ben

PS - One of the members at church said Star Wars was a "perfect movie". Only 15 more months until I can see it. *cries deeply*

PSS - I think it would be AWESOME if Austin got called to the Great Kentucky Louisville Mission and I became his trainer!

Here's the tie you gave me last week and a blue tie I picked up at Mitchell's
because it caught my eye. It's a nice dark blue with white stripes.

From left to right: Elder Walker, me, Elder Caldwell, Elder Hammond,

Elder Charlton, and Elder Sharp. Elder Sharp is in my district again.

This is the pizza someone at my table ordered last night.
I just bought a slice of cheesecake and drank water.

The kids were funny.

That's me, Elder Irwin, Rod, and Elder Bennett on Elder Walker's lap.

Goat House

December 14, 2015

Dear Family,

Hellow! :D

This week was pretty fun. I got a lot of stories out of it. Starting with the dance. One of the sisters in the dance apparently didn't like that we did that. She complained to one of the STL's (Sister Training Leader, the only leadership position sisters can hold) about it and threw down on how "disobedient" we were being and "how many of God's children are going to suffer" because of it. It doesn't make sense for her to hate it because she looked like she loved doing it and she helped all of us learn it. But according to the Glasgow elders, she wasn't happy with it. Obedience to missionary rules is important. You should follow them. But some missionaries out here take it to Pharisee/Sadducee level and start making up rules so they won't break other rules. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a district dance. We sent that video to every elder in the mission. That's at least 140 missionaries. And we sent it to Sis. Brough. She loved it. 

Now onto the minister. It actually went really well. He still lets us help in the kitchen but he doesn't want us delivering. We had a 40ish minute lesson with him. We taught L1 and after we finished he started asking a lot of questions about a lot of different subjects. He asked about God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost, Satan, eternal progression, the book of Abraham, Priesthood authority, etc. He was all over the place. What I liked was that he wasn't trying to bash. He was just trying to understand us. We cleared up a lot of his concerns and false ideas about us. He complemented our church by saying "You guys do family better than anyone else." Something he said that interested me was that he went to school for "Angelology" and "Demonology". I didn't know those were subjects that were taught in schools. I wonder where their doctrine for "Angelology" comes from. Anyway, it was a nice meeting. A lot better than I was expecting it to be. He's a minister for the money though, unfortunately.

I went to Glasgow again this week. I was there with Elder Hammond. We helped a member named Bro. E build the frame for a goat house in his back yard. The project took all day. We didn't have any power tools. We had a lot of 2X4's cut to certain lengths, nails, and a hammer to work with. The project turned out surprisingly well. While we were there, they fed us dinner and told us about themselves. Bro. E joined the church 19 years ago and has loved it ever since. He looked a little like Dad. His mannerisms were like Dad too. They have animals all over the place. Goats, pigs, cats, dogs, etc. They have a couple of Amish neighbors. We went over to borrow some clamps from one of their workshops. Yes, I was in an Amish workshop. The place looked and felt 200 years old. Building that frame was one of the funnest service projects I've done out here. I've noticed the funnest service projects I do out here involve some kind of farm work. After we finished the service, I spent an hour in Glasgow's church restoring my iPad's music. While I was in Glasgow, Elders Jensen and Caldwell got to try deep fried squirrel from one of the guys we serve with at that church.

While I was in Glasgow, Elder Hammond introduced me to a local Kentucky gospel band. They're called The Lindsey Family. Their latest album, Crosses & Stones, came out this year. I have it on my iPad. I think you'll like them because they're SUPER Kentucky but not annoying Kentucky. They're actually really good. 

Well, Elder Jensen is getting transferred. He leaves tomorrow. He's been waiting for this for a long time. In my time with Elder Jensen, I've learned a lot about exact obedience vs. disobedience. As I mentioned, some missionaries take being obedient to missionary rules to the extreme. They treat it like the military. They say "If you're not exactly obedient, you won't baptize." Missionaries like that look at other missionaries like Elders White or Jensen, who know how to have fun on a mission, and label them as "disobedient". The funny thing is, missionaries who are "disobedient" baptize way more than the missionaries who are "obedient". Elder White baptized 20 people on his mission. As I've thought about this subject I've come to a conclusion as to why "disobedient" missionaries get more baptisms than prideful "obedient" missionaries. People like people who are likable. If you're a stickler for rules and look down on others because you observed their "disobedience" once, that will show when you're teaching someone. On the other hand, if you're a likable person who knows how to have fun, but still follows mission rules, that will show and the investigators will like you. I've heard more stories about prideful "obedient" missionaries scaring investigators off than baptizing them. 

I could go on about obedience vs. disobedience for a long time. It's a subject that's always hot in the mission field among other missionaries. There's every kind of missionary possible out here. Obedience is important and you should strive to be exactly obedient. But in the mission field, it can get hard to define "exact obedience" when you've got every kind of missionary giving every interpretation of the rules. This is a subject I can talk a lot more about in person. It's hard to put into words. I'm going to miss Elder Jensen when he's gone. We had a lot of fun times but we still worked as hard as we could. 

It's weird to think I've been a missionary longer than I was at JCW's because I don't feel like I've been a missionary all that long. I'm 8.5 months in. It does not feel like 8.5 months. 

I love you!

-Elder Ben

PS- Here's a funny conversation I had with a guy who's an investigator. This week's going to be hard with all the Star Wars stuff. I'm going to know everything that happens before I get to see it. :'(

Guy: "Just watch Star Wars anyway. Go to the midnight release"

Me: "We can't. We'll be sleeping."

Guy: "Star Wars is worth losing sleep over. Besides, who's going to know? You're not doing any work at that time of day anyway."

Me: "It's against the rules."

Guy: "So? Who's going to know? Not your mission leaders."

Me: "The Lord will know."

Take care! Love you all!

The goat house we built.

Service & Video

December 7, 2015

Hello Family! :D

Yes, I got the box. I already ate through the Toblerones. I wore the sweater to interviews with Pres. Brough and he liked it. I love the advent calendar! It's really helpful in reminding me about the true meaning of Christmas. I start every personal study with it. 

I'll find out transfer news this Saturday. Elder Jensen has a good chance at being transferred. He's spent 6 months here.

This week was a bit of everything again. We might have to stop doing service at that church. The lead minister pulled us aside and said we're not allowed to help deliver on the church buses anymore because their purpose is to bring others to Christ and ours isn't, but we are allowed to help in the kitchen. We told him our purpose is to bring others to Christ and he said "Well, I don't know a lot about your church. Can we set up a time to meet and discuss doctrines?" The time is set for tomorrow morning at 10. We're going to teach him the first lesson. I have the feeling he won't like it. The thing is, we've made very positive relationships with the other people who help out with the food. They always ask if we're coming back the next week. They love having us over. Last week one of the guys in the kitchen asked if we were going to help with delivery. We told him what happened and he didn't like that. If we do get kicked out tomorrow, it's going to cause a bit of a mess. The people in that kitchen will ask "Why is our church turning away these people who love helping us?" Tomorrow morning is going to be interesting.

On a happy note, J & L are coming to church regularly. We met with them the other night and helped them put Christmas lights up. We also showed them a few of the videos on Christmas.Mormon.org. They liked it. L took it upon herself to call over less active members and invite them to the branch Christmas party. That was cool to see.

During interviews, Sis. Brough challenged every missionary to get a paper back BoM and do the 4 color highlight activity in the back on Chapter 5 of PMG. I've been doing it for 2 weeks now and am almost done with 1st Nephi. It's surprising how much I comprehend now. This activity forces me to read every sentence carefully and decide which of the 4 colors I should use to highlight it or if it needs to be highlighted at all. It's a great activity and it makes the BoM a lot easier to understand. I'd suggest you give it a try. It's fun.

Yes, I did get to watch the Devotional last night. It was like another session of conference. It came on at 8 here which is 6 your time. It was like ending the day early. I thought everyone there gave great messages. I liked Elder Bednar and President Uchtdorf's messages a lot. Both were great at bringing the Christmas spirit in.

Last week I told you about Miss M. Unfortunately she didn't get baptized on Saturday. Her parents are still against it. She really wants to be baptized but she doesn't want to be disowned at the same time. She'll get baptized eventually. I honestly don't know how long it'll take though.

Thank you for everything. I love getting the packages! I have some fun pictures and a video you'll really like.

Merry Christmas! 

-Elder Ben

Cool "B"

Here's that selfie.

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!

Advent Calendar

I don't study. I play with Hot Wheels - jk  :)

This is what I've been having for breakfast for the past few weeks.
I eat next to the cool blow up sunlight thing you sent me.

We had a fireside District Meeting at the cabin this week.

It's pomegranate season!

This is me on the Jenson's couch after Thanksgiving dinner.

This is what's in the Jenson's 40 acre back yard.

Elder Bennett posing again.

Us

We had a bonfire at the end of Thanksgiving day. It was probably 15 feet tall.

Elder Jensen and the toy car.

                                                                  Merry Christmas from the District!

Fastest Week Ever!

Nov 30, 2015

Dear Family,

The 2nd half of this week was super busy. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were crazy.

Thursday was thanksgiving. We started off playing ultimate frisbee with the branch in the morning. We did that for an hour. Then we played sand volley ball for another hour. Then we went to the Jensons and spent the rest of the day there.
At the Jensons we played ping pong wile we waited for the food to be done. Then we ate. The food itself was extremely delicious. Sis. Jenson is a great cook. After dinner we explored their yard. They have lots of little creeks all over the place. Then we lit fireworks. They were big and loud. Then we had a bonfire. It was probably 15 feet high.

Friday was interviews with president. He showed me a good way to introduce the BoM to people. Then Elder Caldwell and I went on exchange to Glasgow. When we got there we met with a member who was stuck in the hospital. We showed him a Mormon message and helped him feel better.

Saturday was abnormal. We would have ended the exchange after lunch but due to crazy conditions, of which I'll describe in a bit, I had to stay all of Saturday in Glasgow. We started off teaching one of their investigators, Mr Gr. I've taught him before. This time he told us to sneak into the Star Wars preview because no one would know. We told him God would know and he said He wouldn't care because He'd watch it with us. Later we met with Miss Mi. She's been investigating for a while. She believes the church is true but doesn't want to upset her mother. She said she'd talk to her about it though. We had to bike the last 4 hours of the day because the Glasgow sisters needed the car. It was raining, dark, and cold. That's how I got a cold. We met with a few people and had dinner with a member. When I got back to Glasgow's apartment I was extremely exhausted.

Sunday was weird because I went to Glasgow's church. It felt like that awkward first church day when you're transferred to a new area. After church we drove to Campbellsville because Caldwell had to do an emergency baptismal interview. This is why the exchange went on for much longer than normal. There's a girl named Miss Ma. She's been going to church for a long time but hadn't been baptized because her family is highly against it.
Miss Ma even teaches primary. She decided she didn't care what her family thinks and decided to get baptized anyway. So in an effort to save miles, we extended the exchange so we'd only have to drive up there once. Instead of once for the exchange and another time for the interview. She's is set to be baptized later this week.

So that was this week.
Love all of you!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

It's weird to think that was a little over 8 months ago. I hit 8 months tomorrow. I have news. Because of the MTC extension I will be serving for an extra week. I won't come home on March 29th now. It'll be April 5th, 2017. I'm actually a little happy about that.

Refiner's Fire

Nov 23, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, Thanks for sending me a third box. I didn't think I'd get so many boxes. I got your last two right when I got back to the apartment after emailing you last week.

I'll be at the Jensons pretty much all day. There's a branch party in the morning and they are having us over right after the party. 

This week shot by! It feels like just the other day when I last emailed you. It was a lot better and I learned a lot. I'm going to go day by day in this email.

On Monday we ate at Chick-fil-a again. Man, did I miss Chick-fil-a in Corydon. Then I got my suit dropped off at the alterations lady. I have interviews with Pres Brough this Friday so I'm going to try and get it back so I can look nice for President :). At night we had our last lesson with Little Miss R :(. She's moving to Idaho with her highly active member grandmother. It'll be a much better place for her to live and grow. We've already sent the missionaries their way. They gave us chocolate cake :)

On Tuesday we started visiting Sis G and continuing to help her through her recent trials. She was much happier today so that was good to see. After that we did more service for J & L. We started off doing wood things and then we did the storm shelter. It got pretty muddy. J was down in the shelter shoveling trash and dirt into a bucket that we would raise and dump when the bucket was full. Unfortunately we weren't able to get all the water out but we did get all the random crap out. It looks a lot better. They're going to have to vacuum the water out somehow. It was actually a lot of fun. I didn't mind the dirt at all.

Wednesday was another fun day. We did more service for that church we helped out with last Wednesday. One of the guys who runs the food ministry's wife is a member. They used to invite the missionaries over and feed them quite often. Elder Jensen mentioned how he's wanted try try squirrel in Kentucky and he said he has some that we can try. He plans on having us over to try squirrel at his house in a couple weeks. That will be fun. As far as the food service goes we helped with the other route they do. We delivered food to more poorer people. Saw a lot of gratitude from them. There was a kid on the bus with us who was probably about 10 years old. At the end of the route he was looking through the extra desserts and found that what he wanted was gone. To that he said "Aww man, they're gone. Oh well, they need it more than me." It kinda stunned me to hear a 10 year old kid say that.

Thursday, we had a great district meeting where Elder Caldwell trained on personal revelation. Elder Jensen hit his 20 month mark this day.

Friday was interesting. We had a guy call us on Monday and tell us he needed to inspect our apartment on Friday and that he'd be there between 1-5. So we had to stay in the apartment from 1 until he got there. He didn't get there until 5:30. He noticed all the glow paint on our walls in the bedroom and said we would have to paint the whole room. We didn't paint the walls with glow paint. It was some previous elders. They made it look like space in their at night. It's pretty cool actually. :)

Nothing special happened on Saturday. We planned more wood service for J & L but the rain stopped us from doing that. They gave us lemonade with passion fruit juice in it. So good!

Sunday I got to teach gospel principles for the first time. It was on Chapter 44: The Second Coming. It went really well. I still like getting up in front of the class to speak. Those Baptist tips you sent me really helped. That's actually how I prepared my farewell talk.

So that was this week in review. I realized something really cool this morning during my studies. Probably my greatest desire for my mission is to become the most Christlike I possibly can. Campbellsville has been trying and improving all of my personal Christlike attributes without me noticing until now. With all the trials I've had here, I've realized each one addresses one of the attributes. This area is further molding me to be more Christlike. There are 2 names that describe this area perfectly. The Refiner's Fire, and The Pride Destroyer. This place will destroy any remaining pride you have, even the pride you don't realize you have. It will humble you to a point where you rely on the Lord far more than you have before. I'm actually thankful for my experiences here. They've further turned me into the person God wants me to be which is something I pray for almost every night.

The story on Elder Jensen's koala: His koala bear came from another missionary named Elder White. Elder White is the guy who tp'd his own seminary building and blamed the rival school for it. The koala came from a 10 year old kid in Corydon, Indiana. When Elder White served in Corydon last year, the kid gave him the koala. Elder White wore that koala at every meeting. When Elder White went home a couple months ago, he gave the koala to Elder Jensen and told him to pass it along to the funniest elder. Elder White wants the koala to stay in the mission to designate who the funniest elder is.

Elder White's words of wisdom he gave at his last transfer meeting: "Mark Newman said, 'To say your mission was the best 2 years of your life is a bit inaccurate. It's OK to say it was the toughest, most challenging, yet most rewarding 2 years of your life.' The mission was the BEST 2 years of of my life, and it can be the best 2 years of your life too, if you do these 4 things. 1st - Let the Atonement change you. Who you are is God's gift to you. Who you become is your gift to God. 2nd -  Never go home - even if you get diabetes! 3rd - Talk with everyone! 4th -  Elders, remember how important the Priesthood is. That's what separates you from all the other preachers on the block. Elder White is preachin' out."

The diabetes thing is funny because he got diabetes on his mission but did everything he could to stay out. Salt Lake wanted to send him home but he did things like delaying his test results so Salt Lake couldn't get their hands on them. It's weird he got diabetes because no one in his family had it.

Well keep being awesome. I love you all! (I still haven't started using "y'all" yet) Bye!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

Look at this nice photo of the Vegas temple that now serves as my iPad

background.

Remember that storm shelter pic I sent you a while ago? Well we finally got around to cleaning it. This is what came out.

This is Joe in the shelter.

Joe was down shoveling garbage into a bucket that was attached to a rope. 
When he would fill it I'd pull it up and dump it in the wheel barrel. 
Elder Jensen would then cart it away :)

Yuck!

This stuff was so good! It was lemonade with passion fruit juice mixed in. Yum!

Celebrating a Hard Week

Nov 16, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, this weeks emails are shorter because not as much happened. I do have two videos that are really good. The first one is of us drinking out of the well again because it was the first week of a new transfer. The second one is what Elder Jensen and I did to celebrate the end of this week 1.

Here's something cool. Do you happen to remember Elder Caldwell? I went to school with him. We were never really friends but I still knew him. He's my district leader now. It's weird having a familiar face from PG around. 

The Jenson family in the branch invited us over for Thanksgiving. That will be fun. :)

This week was a bit of a struggle. It was hard to find new people to teach. We spent hours finding this week and didn't get anything out of it. But, instead of rambling on about the bad of this week I want to talk about the good. On Wednesday we did one of the best service projects I've done on my mission so far. We went to one of the biggest churches in the area and helped them with their food ministry. Every Wednesday they prepare and deliver food to the poorer people in Campbellsville. We went over to help with that and it was a fantastic experience. The members of that church were some of the most Christlike people I've met out here. They were so kind. As we delivered food they were asking everyone if they had any prayer needs. The people we were delivering to were also very kind. They were grateful for the service we were doing for them. It was a great experience all around. They drove us around in their church bus :).

What prompted us to do service at that church? Well 2 main things. 1- The lady who owns Mitchell's and gives us all the nice discounts is high up in that church and she invited us over for that service. 2- President Rodenberg also asked us to go and do service there and see if it's something the youth from our church can do too. So we went. We were able to leave a fantastic impression about the church and the missionaries when we went there. They were thankful that we came to help. We talked about how we wanted the youth from our church to help with the food ministry and they said that would be great.

Other than that the rest of the week was less eventful. I got sick Monday night and had to stay in Tuesday. It wasn't bad. It was a minor stomach sickness. We also stopped by Sis G's and taught her the plan of salvation. She was happy for the comfort it offered.

I like what Pres Sodders said. He was a great guy. I'm glad I was able to leave a good impression.

Well, keep being awesome!

-Elder Ben

I got the suit. Thank you!

Cider and shot glasses

Cider again...

More cider

We did this to celebrate the end of this week. It was a hard week.

Here are the 4 ties I've bought at Mitchell's so far with the new knot on them :)

I bought 2 more ties at Mitchell's.

Sulpher Well District meeting

Celebration

Service

Nov 9, 2015

Dear Family,

I'm not getting transferred. Elder Jensen hasn't had any headaches lately. He's been drinking more water lately.

Jesus Christ is about to become Kylii and Ian's best friend. The MTC has a tendency to "force" a testimony into you. I think that's because you spend all your time studying the word of God. If you remember my scripture plaque, the scripture on it talks about how powerful the scriptures can be. As you study in the MTC and have the spirit of the MTC magnify their impact, a testimony of Christ almost seems forced into you. At least that's what happened to me. I feel like studying scriptures in the MTC is comparable to studying in any Celestial room. Just think of how much studying the word of God in an area where the Spirit is as strong as a Celestial room for days would impact you.

This week was a bit of everything. Monday was normal P-Day stuff. Shopping, emailing, napping, etc. We have a Family Home Evening group out here that's for single people or empty nesters in the branch. We go to teach lessons occasionally. We taught a quick L1 and talked about missionary work. They all launched into ways they can do missionary work.

Tuesday was interesting. We had service with J & L planned but some emergency came up and they cancelled. Later we went to visit the home of some less active members who have been trying to come back to church. Recently, one of them, Bro G, was diagnosed with some severe form of cancer. We went to the hospital when he was diagnosed to visit him a few weeks ago. Unfortunately Bro G passed some time Monday night. We found that out when we visited them today. It was a bit awkward at first. We walked up to their house not expecting anything different. We knocked and Sis G answered. She looked depressed and exhausted as she walked outside to meet us. Right away I noticed Bro G wasn't in his usual chair. I was about to ask where he was when Sis G told us what happened. Some friends of hers showed up and were there for her for the evening. We stayed as well. Sis G was still able to laugh and smile. But she was still pretty sad. We stayed for most of the rest of the evening giving her uplifting messages. She liked that. The funeral was on Thursday. I unfortunately didn't get to go because I was in Glasgow on exchange.

Wednesday was actually pretty fun. We used a lot of miles to go see people in Green County we normally don't get to see because of the mileage limitations. This is the day we took the car through a river :) We began the exchange with Glasgow at night. They wanted us to meet them in a Baptist church's parking lot half way between Campbellsville and Glasgow. When we got to the church we found it was packed with cars. We found an empty spot and waited for Glasgow. They were an hour late. Exchanging in the lot was awkward because when they got there, whatever was going on in the church ended and everyone was leaving. We were surrounded by hundreds of baptists. We had to exchange quickly and get out of there before any one of them challenged us to a bash. I hate bashes.

Thursday was also fun. I spent the day in Glasgow with Elder Hammond. Elder Hammond's only been out for about 4 months. We drove a lot. Tried a lot of people. We had some really solid lessons. We met with a man who's my age named Mr Gr. We taught him in the local library. We had a fantastic L3 with him. He told us his dog ate his BoM. Mr Gr asked for another one. Later we met with a woman named Ms A who is getting baptized this Sunday. Our lunch and dinner hours were both very interesting. Lunch was fun because Elder Hammond took me to a Japanese Hibachi place called Shogun. Man, Shogun was good! I ordered this steak and shrimp meal and it was absolutely fantastic! Dinner was fun because of what happened. I went to the bathroom in one of their toilets in the Elder's apartment. For some reason it wouldn't flush. When I saw it would overflow, I tried to open the top to stop the mechanism but the lid slipped out of my hands, fell into the back tank, and broke the bottom corner of the tank out. Tap water went everywhere. As the water in the back tank gushed out the water in the bowl flushed. Thankfully the Glasgow elders have 2 bathrooms like we do. (I just think it's funny both of my exchanges to Glasgow had disasters in them.)

On Friday we exchanged back and had zone meeting. Because of travel time and how long the meeting was, we didn't do much else today.

Saturday we had more service for J & L. It was more splitting and stacking wood. They had us organize a large wood pile they had in their barn. Many insect homes were destroyed. There were some massive spiders in that pile too. I'm surprised I didn't get bit by something with how much I handled that wood. They took us out to eat at Campbellsville University afterwards.

Sunday was church. Well, that was this week. It had some ups and downs but it was a fun week. 

I was able to master that tie knot fairly quickly actually. That picture I sent you with the multi colored tie is my 2nd or 3rd attempt at it. The knot is basically a backwards double windsor. It's very simple to tie. You can take it off exactly like a double windsor. Just take the small part out, pull, and it'll unwrap itself.

I like what Pres McFarland said about drifting away. It can be easy to judge where you are based off of where someone else is. In all things we shouldn't judge ourselves with the worlds standards, we should judge ourselves with the Gospel's standards. What's right is what's right and what's wrong is what's wrong. Traditions or culture do not effect that.

It must have been weird looking through stuff that was in your old house. I actually googled that house this week and thought "Well, I won't be going back there anytime soon." It's cool that Mr. Guinn was able to provide a lamp.

I love your "Oh, the joy" thing :). J's job is to fix washers, dryers, stoves, etc. He always has a million different dish washers, stoves, cloth dryers and washing machines around his house. I could probably talk to him and get what the best washing machine in the world is. L is a lawyer who is normally stationed in Los Angeles.

Thank you for all you do. Thank you for supporting me. Well, take care. I love you.

-Elder Ben

Country roads in the fall.

We received a referral for this address some time ago. The house was abandoned.

This is a river we came to.

Another angle on the river.

Halloween

November 2, 2015

Dear Family,

My Halloween was a little boring. Holidays in general are hard to work as a missionary. Everyone's gone, with family, having parties, etc. etc. We can't really go knocking on doors because we'd be mistaken for trick or treaters. The Rodenbergs invited us over at night though and we played some board games. 

On most holidays we get 6 to 9 off. That means we stop doing missionary work when the trick or treating starts. The only two holidays that are different are Thanksgiving and Christmas. We get the whole day off for those two.

Why is work an important gospel principle? Well, one of our purposes here on earth is to learn to be happy. Learning requires acting/working. It's best to learn something by doing it. When you work with the gospel i.e. keep the commandments, you learn of its blessings and grow as a person. I've seen so many blessings from my service here. It would take too long to list them all.

The many pictures I sent basically depicted all the major stuff that happened this week. One thing I didn't get a picture of was we had a first lesson with this woman named Ms C. She's met with missionaries before but she never seriously investigated. We took one of our members over, had a great first lesson, and committed her to baptism. It was great to have a member there because it's harder to get members out here in Campbellsville.

Instead of recapping my week to you I want to talk a little bit about what I've learned on my mission so far.

One of the first things I learned on my mission, and I still continue to see day to day, is how All-Powerful God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are. Back in the MTC and the early days of my mission I prayed that God would turn me into the missionary He needs me to be. I realized every trial I went through was necessary to turn me into the person I needed to be. I guess it's more like God's been turning me into the person I needed to be my whole life. I just didn't realize how involved He was until my mission. When I realized that, that's when I changed. That's when I progressed. I've been able to see that same change in a few people's lives out here. There's nothing like the mission to help you realize how real God is. How real His Son Jesus Christ and His Atonement is. And how real the power of the Holy Ghost is.

Something I've been hearing a lot lately is "There's nothing like the mission to help you appreciate your parents". That is very true.

Well, that was basically this week. It was a good one. Love you :)

-Ben

This is the best store bought chocolate milk I've ever had!

Yay! Look what I found at the local Kroger.

We had District Meeting in a suspended cabin in Sulpher Well this week.

More cabin

"Ski" soda

The area surrounding the cabin.

This is the outside.

These are the cars.

The Cruze

Elder Bennet on the Cruze.

The deck

More deck

Cool chair

This is what driving in Sulpher Well is like - dirt roads and brand new cars. 

Elder Jensen on the lawn mower.

These are some of J & L's 42 chickens fighting over an apple.

We had to build our own wood ramp to unload the thing.

We had to use a train jack to get it completely down.

This is a storm shelter J & L have in their back yard. We have the joy of cleaning out on Tuesday morning. :)

Our service project of the week was helping load, transport, and
unload an $8000 hot tub for J & L.  All the rednecks
on the street were double-taking the truck.

Elder Cox

 J & L driving the hot tub away.

Deep South District Elders

Deep South District

These are my shoes after 7 months of use. This was taken right after I shined them this morning :)