Blog-

May 26, 2015

Dear Family,

I'm sorry I didn't write yesterday. The library was closed. :P

Also... you went to Disney World with out me, huh?..... that's going to cost you.... I'll see you in spirit prison... ;)

I'm surprised you know my mission by GKLM. I can't remember if I told you about that or not. I'm glad everything with Grandpa's funeral went well. I'm sure he's much happier. 

I'm glad CDI has been so kind to you with your parents passing. Maybe they'll give you a raise. :) 

I believe Interstellar was the last movie we watched in theaters with just Dad and me. Paddington was the last movie we watched as a family. I'm so glad those were the last two movies we got to watch together. Both were extremely well made. 

So I was wondering if you could make my blog public. Adam emailed me and said he couldn't get into it and I can't get into it because the church email won't allow me and they don't want me to log into any other email. 

I got the box with everything. I actually wore the tie for my talk. I ate 4 of those warheads at once and recorded it. I can't send it now because I don't have my camera or journal with me. I've eaten half of the jelly beans so far. I'm trying to get Elder Lynch to play the game. Haven't had success yet but I'll get him eventually.

Living on my own sucks because it was so much easier when I was at home. It really isn't that bad. I may have made it sound worse than it really is. 

I think it's funny that Evermore's done. It was a completely awesome idea and their booths at the convention were always really well done but as the opening date drew close, it looked like it was too good to be true. 

Do you remember Mrs. Brough? That mom from last year? Have you messaged her yet?

I haven't really had much time to look through the flash drive yet but I'm thankful you sent it. It'll come in handy since videos on my camera take up a lot of space. 

Thanks again for sending me that box. Most of the candy's already gone.

I think I'm just going to do shorter "Highlights of the Week" emails because the ones I've been doing are getting harder to write due to time. It takes me a while to make those. 
I feel like a bit of an idiot for never realizing how valuable the scriptures are. I read them for over 2 hours a day now and apply their principles the best I can. I should be starting Jesus The Christ by Talmage in the next week or so. I'm really looking forward to it. I've heard several things about it. Someone told me it was written in the Holy of Holy's in the temple, someone else told me it was so good the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 almost made it the 5th standard work. I have no idea how true those are but a lot of people have been telling me how good it is. 

A highlight that pops in mind is when I went on exchange with the English Elders again. I got that Joseph Smith print so you don't need to buy a new one (sorry if you already did). What I'm going to do with it is have all of my companions, my mission president, his wife, and myself sign it. When I get home, I'll frame it. It'll become the best item from the mission field.

So my war in street contacting is kinda hard to describe but I'll try to do my best. In the MTC they trained us to teach right from the start. They wanted us to talk about the restoration so that the spirit could work through our words. I remember one example role play where the missionary tried to get to know the person for 5 minutes before they started teaching gospel principles. Apparently 5 minutes is too long. They want us to teach from the start but I keep thinking back to what you said in your letter. "People won't care about what you have to say until they know you care about them." I've been at war with myself because I want to be obedient but I want people to know I care about them instead of rehearsing something because someone told me to. I've been looking for a good balance between both and there's a good example in Elder Holland's MTC talk "Feed My Sheep". 

Does that make sense?

I want to be obedient.

I disagree with the way the MTC taught street contacting.

I want people to know I care about them instead of rehearsing something I was taught

I feel conflicted because the MTC and PMG teach one way and Jeffery R. Holland teaches the way I want to do it. 

But, I've been finding good balances to it. Such as answering questions of the soul through the Book of Mormon. I just want to be obedient and help as many people as possible.

It was good to hear from you. Keep looking for fancy tie knots. You don't have to mail them to me. You can email them and I can print them off.
I'm going to have to cut this short. It was good hearing from you.

-Elder Ben Cox

A Lot Happened This Week

May 18, 2015

Dear Family,

Time for the big letter. A lot of stuff has happened this week as with every week so I'll just dive right into it.

5-11-15 Monday

Highlight of today was my meeting with the RLDS guy we know. He's interesting. As before, he brought up his concerns with the LDS church. We again tried explaining them and going over other things that make us who we are but he simply wouldn't listen. He won't even try to think that what he's heard about the LDS church is wrong. He used to be LDS but he switched to RLDS when he heard about the whole "blacks not getting the priesthood/plural marriage" things. He's forgotten a lot. So much so that we asked him to close with a prayer and he closed the prayer with an "amen" only. It's weird though. I still feel like there's at least a spark of hope somewhere.

5-12-15 Tuesday

Today's a big one. I learned a lot. I had a couple of big concerns of mine answered today. Here's the story. Early in the day we met with a man who was super prepared. He's believed everything we told him and he believes everything in the Book of Mormon can be proven. He had some pretty cool exotic birds with him. He even offered me 2 cokes :). Later in the day we met a couple. They also are pretty prepared and willing to hear more of what we have to say. The wife absolutely loves the Bible and likes the idea of the Book of Mormon. The couple of concern's I mentioned earlier were #1: I wasn't sure If I was being led by the Spirit as strongly as I could have been and #2: I've been at war with myself about contacting people on the street. Now I tried writing the details out in this email but I realized that it would take me forever to do it. Instead I'll refer you to an MTC talk Jeffery R. Holland gave titled "Feed My Sheep". That talk answered the concerns for me. It helped me realize that I was being led by the Spirit and that I was doing what I am supposed to be doing. If you want details on the stories let me know and I'll write them out. 

5-13-15 Wednesday

Today marked the 1 month mark of my flying out to Louisville. Our next door neighbor moved out, Pres. Sodders took us out for lunch and bought us chocolate, I talked to a few sisters about drums and I'm going on exchanges with Elder Sharp tomorrow.

5-14-15 Thursday

Well, Grandpa Cox passed away. A lot of the missionaries have been notified of Grandpa Cox's passing. A lot of people have expressed their condolences. Whenever I talk to missionaries about it, I ask them to pray for Dad more because he lost both of his parents within the space of 4 months. I am a little sad at Grandpa's passing but I know that he was pretty much suffering after Grandma died. But as I said before, I'm more concerned for Dad.

On the other hand I found out that mom knows Elder Lynch's mom. That's kinda insane that Nana and Papa K know Elder Lynch's grandparents. 
During today's District meeting one of the Spanish sisters handed out copies of her drawing of how she imagined everyone in the district (including me) were in High School. I got her to sign my copy. (I WAS STUPID AND DIDN'T GET A PICTURE!) I spent the day with Elder Sharp and it was pretty interesting. A few things fell through but we still met with some good people. I'd say the highlight was the dinner appointment we had. It ended with them burning stuff in their back yard with gas. Enough said :)

5-15-15 Friday

After I got back with Elder Lynch, Pres. Sodders asked us for a favor. He asked if we could watch over a group who were going to fix up the church a bit. We accepted and they never came. We basically slept in the church for an hour. After that, we went to a soda/ice cream/candy shop called Emery's. I wish we had one in Utah. They had candy all over the place. I bought a Neopolitan cone and the ice cream was extremely well made. It tasted amazing. They also have a bunch of old timey sodas. I bought one called "Red Rock: Golden Ginger Ale". It was also amazing but it was spicy. Like drinking it caused my throat to burn as if I ate a pepper or something. It's not alcoholic. It doesn't even have caffeine. I don't know what it was but it kinda hurt to drink. The Spanish sisters gave us a referral that was down one of the 4 streets that Elder Lynch and I were inspired to check out forever ago. 

5-16-15 Saturday

I met a drunk guy. He was too accepting of what we were telling him. I was concerned by the fact he was taking word of mouth too seriously. It was also Stake Conf. today. It was really good. One of our investigators showed up and one of the talks felt like it was almost directly aimed at him. When we left, Elder Lynch and I got Arctic Circle Blizzards before we went to bed.

5-17-15 Sunday

The 2nd session of Stake Conf. was today. It was really good as well. The picture they had on the program was the same picture we have in our living room of a little girl on Jesus's lap. We were fed TWICE by members today. We met some really good potentials as well. 3 of them were outside of an atheist's house that we tried earlier. They were super interested and one of them even had a copy of the Book of Mormon she got a long time ago. They're really interested to learn more. Later in the day, Elder Lynch again, got a prompting to go down a road (that happens a lot). As we drove down I saw a man outside his house and I had a prompting to "go talk to him". We talked to him and he showed a lot of potential. We're really looking forward to meeting with him more.

This was a big week. I did leave out a lot of details especially on Tuesday. So anything you want to hear more about please let me know. And any emails I send to you I want you to use as blog material if you can. That includes the emails I send to Dad. 

As far as how I've grown... It's kinda hard/weird to describe. I almost don't feel like the same person anymore. I don't do ANYTHING like I used to do. I don't play drums, I don't play games, I don't hang out with friends, I don't work for money, I don't go to school, etc. etc. etc. I've changed a lot but at times I still feel like the same person. I decided before I came out that the mission wouldn't change me personally and it hasn't. I'm still the same person but I've learned so much more. I've learned a lot about people, the gospel, Jesus Christ, God, faith, the Holy Ghost, the Bible and Book of Mormon, working hard but not so hard where I hate everything, living on my own (which sucks), and many more things. I grew up with the gospel but I never really applied it until I came out here. I'd say the biggest change/growth I've gone through is how to apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ into my life.

I'm still the same person, but so much more now.

As always here come the pics.

Love Elder Cox

PS - On P-Days, we either explore the town, stay in and watch Mormon videos, or both. The last two in a row we've just stayed in and watched videos. Later today I'm planning on going to this ice cream/candy/soda shop called Emery's. We went there a couple days ago and it was really good. There's also a blown glass shop near the apartment I want to check out.

P-Day

A really cool neighborhood

More of the cool neighborhood

Cool Parrot

Best Mailbox!

I'm going to start taking pictures of signs like these.
I heard about one that said "The Book of Mormon. Don't read it. That's how they get you!"

Here's a really cool driveway...

Mission 5% Completed

May 11, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

*Yay* 5% through! Well, I can't remember this week off the top of my head so I'll start with the days. 

5-4-15 Monday

I had my first church tour today. It was kinda fun actually. It was a really good way to explain who we are and a lot of what we believe. Later that night I went and ate dinner at another member's home. This member is a manager at the local O'Charlies and he's a REALLY good cook. He made us the best pastrami burgers I've had in a long time. They may have even topped JCW's pastrami burgers. I told him the reason why I'm serving a mission and he quoted me on FB. I told him "I feel the spirit stronger when I'm teaching people the gospel" and he was blown away at that. I've actually told several people that and they all seem to be extremely impressed when I tell them.

5-5-15 Tuesday

Last week on Wednesday, 6 days ago, we met a man and today we met with him again and got to talk to him with the Branch Pres. We found out today that we first met him the day he was released from prison. He tried to get into contact with his previous church and other churches and they all denied him. So far he says we're the only ones who said we'll accept him. I just think it's interesting how Elder Lynch and I met him the day he got out. 

5-6-15 Wednesday

I had a lot of good teaching experiences today. We ate out with Granny J again and she asked us if we worshipped Joseph Smith in temples. We clarified on that. We taught a man the Restoration and he accepted baptism. That makes 8 now. We found a less-active man who went to church when he was younger but he lost contact with the church when he moved. We been re-teaching him everything and so far we've seen him at church and other ward meetings. 

5-7-15 Thursday

I went on exchanges again today. I was in English, Indiana with Elder Rasmussen for the day. First we taught an atheist who would like to believe there's a God but can't because of all the bad things happening in the world. She had a million questions. We could have answered all of them but it would have taken 6 hours. She also confused us for Jehovah's Witness. (not the first time someone's done that) You'd like her yard, Dad. I took a couple pics. Elder Rasmussen also showed me a talk by Hyrum W. Smith. I don't know the name but it was about belief windows and how people think. Dad would love it. 

5-8-15 Friday

I had my first Zone Meeting today. It's different from Zone Conference. I got to participate in a meeting between the zone leaders and district leaders. I said a lot more than I thought I would. They were discussing disobedient missionaries and I was offering advice on how they could deal with them. After the meeting and later in the evening, Elder Lynch and I met an old Vietnam veteran who has high faith in Christ and is willing to hear more about our church. He invited us in for Dr. Pepper. Afterwards, we met probably one of the most interesting guys I've ever met. He said he wasn't going to listen to our message because he has his own faith, but he also said he knows what missionary work is like because he had a friend who did the same thing. He started offering money and food because he kept saying "I know how hard what you're doing is and if you need anything let me know now." We kept refusing but he kept pressuring us to allow him to help us. I finally said "Alright, here's something you can do for us. Answer me 1 question. Why won't you listen to what we have to say?" He answered with "time". Although he said he had his own faith earlier. We didn't really get anywhere with him but we did give him a BOM and he said he would read it. 

5-9-15 Saturday

We had a fun branch fund raiser today. It was an auction and they were auctioning off things ranging from guns to baked goods. I bought a $10 thing of amazing brownies and a $5 flute that a member of the branch makes out of her own bamboo trees.

5-10-15 Sunday

Today was Mother's Day. I got to talk to my family. It was really good and I didn't realize how much I needed that until after I hung up. During Church today, Elder Lynch and I were a part of every meeting. Elder Lynch gave a talk. We taught two Sunday school classes and we taught how to introduce the Book of Mormon in Priesthood. 

That's the week. If there are any subjects that I kinda leave abruptly, or if you want me to explain them more, just let me know. I kinda write these long emails fast without much editing/refining. 

Love Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

Nice driveway in the woods

Here's an awesome drawing of Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove. I want a copy!

Brownies from the auction

Already 1/2 gone!

My apt

Every night...

April/May Zone Conferences 2015

Sister Brough: Yes, It's Zone Conference time...We started in the New Albany Zone on April 29th and finished in the Crestwood Zone on May 8th. The Missionaries of the GKLM have new ideas how to "TEACH" when you find and "FIND" when you teach. BETTER ways to get the members involved and HOW to be better planners.
We are "Preach my Gospel" Missionaries HERE in the GKLM!

my email: bcox@myldsmail.net

Hi Family and Friends,

Here's my mission email: bcox@myldsmail.net. You can write to me directly. Thanks for your love and support!

730 Days to Serve

One of my uncles has a brother who started this missionary website. It's a cool story...
730 Days to Serve

My Aunt and Uncle gave me this ring to help me keep my mission in perspective. I wear it every day!

1 Month In

May 4, 2015

Hello Family,

I'm officially 1 month in. Does it feel like a month to you? Does it feel shorter/longer. To me I feel like it's been an eternity but I also feel like I was dropped off 2 days ago. I remember reading an article Mom sent me about how missionaries receive a life time of experience in the two years they serve a mission. I can easily tell you that's very true. I feel like I've done more than any of my years in high school. As far as names on the blog go ahead and change them to generic names. The pres. hasn't specified anything about blog use.

This week was pretty interesting. The last half was pretty hard. 

4-27-15 Monday

Today was a great relief. I really enjoyed emailing my friends and family. Later in the day a man drove by us in a truck. He then stopped and asked us if we were missionaries. We answered "yes" and he asked us to stop by his house at that instant. We followed him to his house but his mom, I'm assuming, said now wasn't a good time. We've tried going back a few times but we haven't been able to get in yet. Later that night we taught the "K" family again. They're really warming up to us. We taught them more about the B.O.M, read the first chapter with them and watched the 20 min. Restoration video. They even agreed to baptism. I'm 3 weeks in and have 7 people committed to baptism. 

4-28-15 Tuesday

I got my blue suit really dirty. We did 2 hours of unexpected service for one of our investigators. We moved a lot of heavy things out of their house. That's always my favorite thing to do. Every few days we find people who just flat out run from us. We walked up to this house and the people in the yard picked up their children and ran into their house as if we had the zombie disease. I about died laughing. We met a guy who mistook us for Jehovah's Witness, that happens a lot, and we clarified the difference. He seemed interested but didn't give us a number. 

4-29-15 Wednesday

Today was my first Zone meeting and Elder Lynch's last. I talked with Elder Sharp again. He happens to be in my district. I also made an unexpected discovery. Ezra Caldwell / Elder Caldwell is serving in the same mission. He came out 1 transfer before me. It was nice seeing someone from Elementary, Jr. High and High School out here. I learned a lot of good things at the conference. How to be better, how to approach better, what priesthood keys are exactly and some very useful info on iPads. We'll be granted an iPad, free of charge and we'll be given an opportunity to use our own personal Facebook accounts to find people in our area. We'll won't be using a new church Facebook. We'll be given time to clean our personal one out. I don't know if that means we'll be allowed to message home more often but you'll be seeing my Facebook become a lot more active than it ever has been in a few weeks. 

4-30-15 Thursday

There isn't a whole lot to say about today. We taught two families. One is a part member family the other is an inactive family. All of our other appointments fell through.

5-1-15 Friday (1 Month)

We had 5 set appointments for today and ALL of them fell through. We spent like 8 hours tracting. We talked to a lot of people in those 8 hours. Almost all of them said the same things. "I'm comfortable where I'm at" "I already go to church" "I already believe in Jesus" "I've already been saved" etc. etc. etc. In those 8 hours we only met 1 man who seemed interested. We talked to him and he accepted a return appointment. He even said he and his family have been looking for a church lately. He's a super friendly guy. We also met a member from Salem UT who gave us some good tracting tips. We met another Satanist today. He asked us if we had our "magic underwear on that protected us from evil." Elder Lynch responded with "Yeah, along with my 40 wives." 

5-2-15 Saturday

Over the past month Elder Lynch has been talking about going back to Lexington KY, his previous area, to view someone's baptism and confirmation. The Pres. allows you to return to previous areas with his permission. Today was the day we were supposed to drive 2.5 hours to Lexington but the person being baptized and confirmed decided she wasn't ready and called the whole thing off 15 minutes before we were going to leave. We spent the rest of the day tracting again. We used the tips we got from the member the previous day and they worked out pretty well. We found 1 potential and had a nice discussion with a German lady. 

5-3-15 Sunday

Today was fast and testimony meeting in church. It was really good. I'm surprised by how many people came up. There are far fewer people in our branch than my home ward but more people came up in the branch than the ward. Later in the day we had an appointment with a man in a trailer park. He wasn't there (of course) so we both felt like we needed to go down the street to another road. We tried some other trailers in the park but no one would listen. After the trailer park we met up with the sister missionaries to eat at a members home. The members were really nice. 

I'm not sure if the last 4 days just happened to be difficult days or if I'm doing something wrong. Again this isn't everything that happened. Just about 2/3rds-3/4ths of what happened. 

I'm happy the spiral cymbal came. How does it sound just by itself?  Please keep sending me packages. I am getting fed but I really love how you send me stuff in the mail. It's an immense comfort to me.

Thank you so much for being there for me!

-Benjamin Bunny

Because my comp is the Senior Companion and District Leader, he's always on the phone.
We're on our way to give a blessing to a patient in the hospital.

Lizard for Little Miss

Nice trees - twisty arm

Questions?

April 27, 2015

Hello Family,

I got your box of candy. Wow - you stuffed the thing full with everything!

You and dad like to write a lot of questions in your letters so I'll answer them.

-I'm in a car. 

-I email from the library across from the church. 

-Send me as many letters as you like on either mail of email. Mail takes like 5 days. Email is instant but I won't see it until Monday.

-I'm in an apartment. It's just me and my comp.

-I'm fine with food. I actually eat out a lot more than I thought I would. A lot of the members like to cook for us/take us out to eat. Breakfast for the most part is just a little something random from the apartment. This morning I had a peanut butter and honey sandwich on this "really healthy" bread. Lunch and dinner are kinda random. Lunch and Dinner are usually provided through members, other missionaries or gift cards. I used my Subway card the other day. I think I still have like $6 on it or something. 

-I haven't used my Wendy's cards yet. I'm planning on it soon though.

-Even though tracting is "illegal" we do it anyway. It's not like we go exactly door to door. I like to stop at a corner, look at the houses in front of me and see if the spirit is trying to tell me or my companion about one of them.

Thank you for your concerns. It means a lot. I'll let you know of anything I might need/want. Like a bladder tie. I learned about these things in the MTC and I met an Elder who has one. They're ties that have bladders you can drink out of. Just look into them and you'll see what I mean. 

Highlights of the week: 

(I actually have my journal with me this time)

4-20-15 Monday (The day I emailed you last)

After I emailed you I met a man who's a really nice guy. We told him a little, he accepted a Book of Mormon and said he'd be interested in learning more. Later that day we visited a member and gave her and her son a blessing that the medical tests would go well. They haven't gotten the full results back but from what I knew they've ruled out some of the major concerns. 

4-21-15 Tuesday

Today was the day I took the lead in giving a lesson for the first time. Mr K was willing to hear our lesson. We taught him the restoration and he took it abnormally well. We set up a return appointment and left his house. Later than night we met and taught a family. The dad grew up Catholic but everyone else didn't really have a religion. We taught them the restoration and the lesson part went really well. Then things started getting a little heated. He was asking us questions about Joseph Smith, the Bible, how the Bible says not to add to it, how God made the Earth in 7 days etc etc etc. We were able to answer ALL of his questions and they accepted a return appointment.

4-22-15 Wednesday

Today we met a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (RLDS). The RLDS member was talking about his concerns with LDS members and the history of the church. We tried answering his concerns but he was too stuck-in-his-ways. He also told us a little about Mr K. Apparently Mr K was a solid member of our church! He didn't tell us that the previous day. We even asked Mr K if he know anything about our church and he said "not really". The reason I said the lesson went abnormally well is because he was answering questions flawlessly. He was taking everything too well for someone who didn't really "hear much" about our church. We haven't had an opportunity to talk to him since.

4-23-15 Thursday

Not really a whole lot happened this day. The zone leaders came and blitzed our area with us. That means there were 4 missionaries in an area instead of 2. 

4-24-15 Friday

A lot more happened today than Thursday. I went on exchanges with one of the zone leaders to his area for the day. We taught a few lessons but the main highlight of today was when we met some Muslims. There was a group of about 8 of them and they were all arguing. My ZL said we should go talk to them, I asked him if he was sure and he said "yes". So we walked over there and it wasn't until we were in the middle of their group when they stopped arguing and said "hi". We started talking about our church and most of them weren't interested and walked off. One was however. He hadn't heard of Mormons before so we told him a little about us, gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment. Sadly I won't be able to teach him because I'm in a different area. 

4-25-15 Saturday

It rained a lot on Saturday. A sister in our ward got her mission call to Las Vegas Nevada. She leaves in a month. I'll have about 4 months left by the time she gets back *yay*. 

4-26-15 Sunday

I helped give an investigator a blessing of comfort because she was heading into the hospital the following day for hand surgery. I met a man who is a single dad of 2 and a recent convert to the church. I asked him what his favorite things about the missionaries were and he said he liked how friendly and knowledgeable they were. If they didn't have the answer off the top of their heads they'd get it to him within 2 days. I ate at a members house and they had AC and ME merchandise all over their house. 

I'm not going to tell you EVERYTHING that happens for 2 reasons. I can't remember everything, even when I'm writing in my journal. And I'd like to tell some stories verbally. This is most of what happened this week. However I do feel like telling you about 3 strange religions I leaned about.

1. My neighbor believes he's "a elf/creature from another realm/dimension who has been called to the Earth through someone's dream to help that person fulfill God's will for them."

2. My comp told me about a man who believed he is "a space cowboy who will be the first and only person to teach religion in space and when that happens all the martians will fall and worship him." 

3. I asked my comp what the strangest religion he's heard about was and he said there's one that worships a "Macaroni God". Apparently half the members actually worship it and the other half join just to mock the religion. 

This is the kind of email I wanted to write from day 1 but I lacked the means until today. I hope you can get the blog up and running.

Thanks for listening 

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

Our church is in an old Nazarine church building - check out the cross.

My Comp and Trainer - Elder Lynch

A "real" river

A member made an all green meal for me because I'm a greenie!
Green ham, green beans, green mashed potatoes with green gravy, green salad, green roll and a green Easter peep!

Lots of green...

Beautiful buildings

Funny!

1 Week in the Field

April 20, 2015

Hello family,

Thank you for your kind email. Never stop sending me emails, they really help.

So I'm 1 week in the field. It's kinda hard to believe that I've been out of the MTC for 7 days now but it's been a real good experience.

I'm serving in Corydon, Indiana. It's a small town about 30ish minutes from Louisville. My new companion is named Elder Lynch. He's been out for 21 months. I'm his last companion because the training program last for 12 weeks. 

My comp and I are white-washing this area. That means neither of us have ever been here. We didn't have much success our first week because we're still trying to figure the area out and still trying to get to know the members. He's white-washed before and said it takes about 3 weeks to get things really going. 

People here are really nice about saying "no". With all the churches around most people "have their own church that they've been going to for years". But that doesn't stop us from handing out several Book of Mormon's a day. 

I've had many experiences and I've taken several pictures but unfortunately I was dumb and forgot my camera cable. Although, if you look up "Kentucky countryside" on google images you'll get a pretty good idea of where I'm serving looks like. 

At the bottom of my emails I'll start giving you my highlights of the week. Just things I did or saw that I can remember off of the top of my head. 

Highlights of the Week: I saw Thunder over Louisville "the biggest fireworks show in the world". My seats weren't all that good so I didn't get to see all of it. I went to a fireside the Candy Bomber spoke at. He looks good for 94. For some reason there's a giant batmobile toy in the back of our car. I shook hands with a Satanist in a crack house (there really isn't much more to the story than that). I've contacted over 100 people about the gospel. I committed 1 to baptism. I took some pictures of a "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" building. I didn't even know that was a thing. That reminds me, our church building used to be a Nazarene church and it has a cross on it. The church tried to remove it but because the building has some kind of significance the city wouldn't let them.

Hopefully that give you a good idea of what I've been up to. I know some of those things sound kinda intimidating but just know that I'm safe. I'm protected by Heavenly Father and He's not about to let anything bad happen to me.

Thanks for the bedding and gold fish! They're completely awesome!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

Just arrived at the Louisville Airport - Can you find Elder Cox?

President and Sister Brough pick up all the new missionaries.

It's easy to spot Ben with the messenger bag that Aunt Caroline made for him.

Sister Brough: Meet the NEW Missionaries to the GKLM (Great Kentucky Louisville Mission)....
Front Row-L to R : Hermana Butterfield, Hermana Chantry, Sister Johnson and Sister Reed.
Middle Row-L to R: Elder Salazar, Elder James, Elder Despain and Elder Sharp,
Back Row-L to R: Sister Brough, Elder Cox, Elder Durrant, Elder Singleton, Elder Frogget and President Brough.

Sister Brough: Here we are at the Transfer Meeting on Tuesday.  This is when the NEW missionaries find out who their trainers will be.  The missionaries returning home give their words of wisdom.  Then, those missionaries being transferred find out where they are going.  Its a GREAT experience!

Can you find Elder Cox?

There are a lot of missionaries!

Surprise!

April 11, 2015

Dear Family,

Surprise!

Since I'm shipping out on Monday they're letting me do laundry and email back home today. :) 

I'm going to be calling home at about 5 or 6 Monday morning so wake up early! They want us to report to leave at about 3:45 A.M. Doesn't that sound like fun? 

I found Victoria and Shawnelle this week. They're doing pretty good! Shawnelle was surprised to see me. She didn't know we'd be in the MTC at the same time.

Nana & Papa K sent me two boxes of Sprouts Gummy Bears. I gave one to the other 3 elders in my residence and they devoured the whole thing in about an hour. I kept one for myself. Most of your candy is gone too. 

I got the watch on Tuesday actually. It's been working great so far! I still don't like having a thing strapped around my wrist but I need it to be able to tell time. It serves its purpose well. 

I had In Field Orientation the other day. It was a 9.5 hour class that was, for the most part about how to use members as a resource in finding people to teach. They spent so much time on that because statistically, tracting is the least effective method in finding people to teach and it just so happens that tracting is illegal in the U.S. 

Darn I was really hoping to spend 16 hours a day walking!

As per usual I've been studying, reading, studying, reading, reading, role playing, reading, studying, role playing, studying, reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, studying, role playing...................... Have I mentioned READING YET? 

The weird thing is I'm not going insane in the least. I actually enjoy reading (DID I JUST TYPE THAT?!).

I'm still learning a lot and I'll tell you everything that's happened when I call you. They limit emailing to 60 minutes per P day. Although that's more that I thought it was going to be It's still not enough to type everything out. 

Thank you for your support, your kind letters, your candy, you love, I miss you but I'm happier than I have been in a while. I pray that you'll be safe and happy too. 

I'll send you pics in separate emails as per usual.

Thanks for listening.

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

It's a bird, it's a bike, no... it's Super Elder!

My district with our teacher, Bro Carver 

2 PG Vikings - Sister Larsen, Elder Cox with Elder Sharp

1st Email Home

April 7, 2015

Hello Family,                    

I'm 6 days in and I'm doing fine. The MTC was a bit of a hard adjustment, I'd still rather be out in the field I've become much more comfortable with the place. Right after I was dropped off they took me through some of the main buildings to get things like my name tag, schedule and other missionary info. After that I was taken to my room where I left my bags for the day. After that I was taken to my class room which is sort of a "home base" for everyone in our district. That's where I met my companion. His name is Elder Sharp and he's from Oregon. Not Utah like you were thinking.

After I met my companion the days started to blur together. I'm not sure what happened exactly on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th days but I'll tell you what comes to mind in this email. I don't have my journal with me at the moment. Not because I lost it, I know exactly where it is, I just don't have it with me at the time of this email. 

At the MTC we wake up a 6:30, get dressed, go to our "home base" classroom and study for almost the ENTIRE day. It's hard but I've learned quite a bit. They have us do role plays here. They have given me and my companion 3 investigators to take just as seriously as actual investigators. One of them I know for a fact is a teacher. The other two... I'm not sure on. They seem very legitimate. They told us that most of the role play investigators will be teachers but some of them are real. Role playing is probably the scariest thing here but It's all meant to build experience. I've already noticed a huge difference in my teaching just after 6 days. 

The first letters I got were on the 3rd day. The first one I opened was from Adam. I was thinking that Mom was going to be the author of my first letter but no. It was Adam. He sent me a really really good letter.

All the letters that Mom sent me have been of great comfort to me. They had a lot of questions but the answer to all of them is "I'm fine". I'm warm, I'm doing great, I found that family book, etc, etc. I thought Ammon and Tessa's letters were great! Those were great to read because I could hear your voices when I read them. Dad's letter was amazing! I've ready used on companions AND investigators. The advice in that letter is perfect! I re read it every 2 or 3 days or so. 

I can't really think of much else to say other than thank you for everything! Thank you for the letters, for the book marks, for the freaking huge box of candy, for the beanie, for your support, for keeping me updated and thank you for being awesome! This is my first and only letter you'll get from me while I'm in the MTC. I ship out to Louisville on Monday so my next letter while be while I'm out in the field. I'll be a lot more specific next time but I just wanted to write what came to my mind today. 

Thank you for listening.

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

Last hugs....

The Drop-Off... sniff, sniff

My MTC District

Home Base

Trinity Knot