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!