God's love

July 20, 2015

Dear Family,

It sounds like another fun week at home. I'm happy you're going through Preach My Gospel. It's practically considered scripture out here. Technically it is. I didn't know how good it was until I came out here. It simplifies the gospel and helps the missionary understand what their role is. 

The Ecco's are holding up great! I shine them every week. Every time I shine them they look good as new. I switch shoes every day. Weather doesn't really make a difference since they're both waterproof. I like the look of the laced ones better but the laceless ones are easier to deal with.

I'd say the highlight this week was the exchange I went on with Elder Gunnel. He just barely came out when Elder Lynch left. He's our district leader's companion. I got to lead out for a day here in Corydon. I've taken the lead before but I've never done it with someone who just came out. As young as Elder Gunnel is, he taught me a lot. He was, by far, the best missionary at contacting I've ever seen. He was the best at being bold, yet loving. He was fearless but he also understood when the answer was "no". I was impressed. He taught me a lot with contacting being one of my weaknesses. We balanced each other out though. He was strong at contacting, I was strong at teaching. Since then my own contacting has improved. My mind has been clearer and I've been taking "no" better. Not that "no" ever seriously bothered me, I'm just more comforted by the fact that I did my part. 

I have some talks for you to listen to. You'll have to look these up. They're all really long but they're worth it. The first one is "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. The second is "Bill Carpenter's Conversion Story". And the third is "The Belief Window/Self Worth" by Hyrum W. Smith. "The Belief Window" is the longest one (70 minutes) but it blew my mind. When you listen to it have some paper and a pen out and write down what he says. I have a feeling you would really like it because it deals with human needs and how the gospel relates to them. 

I don't know if I've told you about Emery's yet. Emery's is a little ice cream, soda and candy shop here in downtown Corydon. There's only 1 Emery's in existence and it's here. They sell a lot of old candy and old soda. Their ice cream is the highest quality ice cream I've ever had. I haven't had a flavor I haven't liked yet. The sell Nehi's too. Nehi is an ancient soda brand that you don't see too often. I'm sure Dad knows about them. Nehi has a peach flavor. Peach flavored soda is rare. Nehi Peach soda is the best fruit flavored soda I've ever had! For the love of me, find a way to get Peach Nehi in Utah! 

I'm still learning, I'm still growing and I'm still working hard. Elder Shelley and I have had to drop a lot of investigators this week because they weren't keeping their commitments. I've tracted a lot these past few days. We've somewhat lost contact with M & R this week. I'm worried they dropped us. Because they live so far away, we can't just drive up and check on them whenever. We have mileage limits on the car. They were progressing fantastically until I mentioned they had to be married before they were baptized. As far as I know they still want to join. They're just not answering the phone. They have been sick lately so that may be it. I seriously doubt they'd stop investigating the gospel at this point. We'll try calling and we may have to swing by at some point.

I'd say the lesson I learned this week was how to be more confident that I did my part. I have a lot of subjects that I'm constantly pondering in the back of my head. One of the subjects this week was if I'm doing my part or not. I often think to myself, "In that lesson did I say something that helped them? Did I teach clearly? In that contact was I bold? Loving? Did I give them a clear choice?" A lot of the time I feel like I MOSTLY did my part. This week I realized I'm doing more to please Heavenly Father than I thought. I'm not perfect but I'm trying my best and I'm always looking to improve. This week I was on exchanges and even though we didn't teach a whole lot I felt that Heavenly Father was pleased with the effort we put forth in trying to do His work. 

Here's something cool that I realized this week. I had these questions running through my mind this week: "Why does God love the sinner?" Why does God still love those who turn their backs on him? Why does God refuse to give up on ANY of His children?" I had these and other questions similar to them in my mind all throughout this week. One of the biggest things I've learned about the nature of God on my mission is that we call him "Heavenly Father" for a reason. He is literally the Father of our spirits and He is a lot more similar to an earthly father than most people realize. But the answer "because God is our Father and He loves us" wasn't satisfying my questions. Then I remembered what happened in the pre-earth life. There were two plans presented, Jesus's plan and Satan's plan. Satan wanted the glory but Jesus wanted the glory to go to the Father. 1/3 of the hosts of Heaven chose Satan. 2/3 chose Jesus. All those who chose Jesus's plan got to come down here to earth. When I remembered that I realized that everyone on earth chose to love God and follow Him. Imagine if your child came up to you and said "Father, I love you. I want to follow you. I'll do everything you ask of me." You'd probably be a little shocked. Ultimately you'd do everything you could to help you child grow. Heavenly Father didn't "cheap out" on anything. He gave us a very clear path to grow and to return back to Him. He gave us a way to be forgiven when we mess up. He wants everything for us because we chose to love Him before we came to his earth. So... why does God love the sinner? Why does God love everyone on earth? It's because everyone on earth chose to love and follow God before they came here. 

Thank you for you!

-Elder Ben

Sis Brough: The Zone Conferences were centered around "Planning for Investigators."
What do they need to help them progress towards baptism?
The Lexington North Zone had the cleanest apartments and the Louisville Zone had the cleanest cars.

New Albany Zone Missionaries singing "Army of Helaman" and "Called to Serve"

First haircut of the mission and the back of Elder Shelley

New Comp

July 13, 2015

Dear Family,

I'm still in Corydon. My new companion is Elder Shelley. He's been out for 8 months. He started in Louisville, then he went to Frankfurt, and now he's in Corydon. As far as everything else, Corydon's doing great. Elder Shelley is a more laid back guy than Lynch. He's been out for 8 months. He'll get home around Kylii's year mark. We both like soda :)

Transfers were kinda hard to get through. I had to say goodbye to Elder Lynch. That was tough. The day before transfers we took one of Elder Lynch's suits to Pres. Sodders house to blow up. Pres. Sodders bought a few half-pound explosives and put them in the suit. We then stood back as he shot the suit. It exploded. We also blew up another Elder's suit who went home. I have video of both. I need to see if there's a way I can get the video to you. We burned the remaining shreds of clothing with diesel fuel. I'm glad you got to meet Elder Lynch. I'm sure the PB bars will blow his mind away. I didn't think you would have met him already. I guess I lost track of time. That happens out here. I've been out 3.5 months and it feels no where near that long. By the time I'm an RM I'll be asking "Where did the time go?" a lot. 

Here's the full story of the couple (M & R) we taught. Elder Lynch really liked them. Here's their story from the beginning to now... We met M the day we had the first session of Stake Conference. We coordinated with another family in the branch to meet us at a local Walgreens and drive us up to the stake center. They were a little late so we decided to get out and talk to a few people in the Walgreens parking lot. After a few no's, we saw M step out of the Walgreens the second the family we were to meet with got there. We decided to talk to her and she said she and her husband/boyfriend R, would be interested in hearing our message. She happens to live near the border of our area, kinda in the middle of nowhere. We probably would have never tracted out her house because of that.

A couple days went by and we met with them for the first time. Elder Lynch was almost emotional during their first lesson. When he got to the part about the priesthood M said, "Well, I guess that means we need to be baptized then." The second time we met with them we followed up on their BoM reading and they were 8 chapters in. Since that point we have had powerful after powerful lessons with them. The first time they came to church we weren't really expecting them to be there because they said they had been sick. They happened to come on fast and testimony day and at the end M got up and bore her testimony. She said she knew the church was true because of how she felt the moment she walked in and how nice everyone was. She also said she's looking forward to becoming a member. I was about blown away when that happened. Later that day we went over to their house to talk about church and they described their experiences in detail. They said the second they walked in they felt like they were home. They felt the spirit more strongly there than at any other church they've ever been to. R said he has a friend who's a preacher (different preacher than the one later mentioned in the story) and he never feels that good or comfortable in his church. So a few weeks go by, we teach them some more lessons, and one morning a Baptist preacher comes and knocks on their door. There isn't a whole lot to that part of the story. Simply what happened is he started bashing on the LDS church. To this day I don't know exactly what he said. I thought I would have to go in with my "Anti Defenses" so I reviewed every piece of "anti" that I've come across in preparation of explaining things to them. Later in the day when we asked about the preacher, she said she didn't care about what the preacher said. She pointed out how God wouldn't send someone to bash on anyone. Even if they're wrong. To her, the preacher was a testimony builder. 

So that's M & R's story. It's pretty cool isn't it? They're still investigating but I haven't seen them in a week or so because they've been sick again. M has 5 college degrees and she's working on her 6th.

It's hard to prepare someone for a mission. There isn't really an effective method. There isn't really a special trick to it. Sure, things like seminary/institute/mission prep classes etc. help. But the only way to really know what a mission is going to be like is to experience it. Throw yourself into it. Just do it. Even if you have no idea what you're doing, just get up and walk. It's a lot easier for the Lord to guide moving feet than still feet. If Kylii has the opportunity to go on splits with the missionaries I'd suggest she go. To me, that was the best mission prep I received. Because it was legitimate missionary work before my own mission. I got to meet real people who are investigating the gospel before my mission. I got to experience what it was like to have appointments fall through before my mission. I got to be a missionary before my mission. That was the best way to prepare. I'm not talking about material preparedness. Clothes, scriptures, shoes, suit cases, etc. I'm talking about mental preparedness. In the field you learn to forget yourself and work. Your investigators needs become your own. You spend all of your effort trying to help others. I know Kylii will do great. I could tell how much this means to her from the video you sent. If she ever needs help I'd be happy to give, I'm sure Spencer wouldn't mind either. There are a lot of people in our family who could help. Good luck Kylii! Just put everything, both physically and spiritually, in the the hands of the Lord and you'll make it. 

It was a fun/sad week. But I guess that's life for the next little while. Thank you for all the support. It means a lot :) It won't be long before I'm home.

-Elder Ben

I figured out the Viper knot. It starts out exactly like the Eldridge knot.

All my sharpie pens

Glow-sticks and black lights

Bro Cox, Elder Lynch, Sis Cox
"It's nice to see that you all (I'll never use "y'all") still look happy"

Fun Reward

July 6, 2015

Dear Family,

Thank you for the boldness advice. I have been getting better at it. So far everyone we've challenged to be baptized has fallen through. We've probably set 20+ baptism dates with people in the 3 months we've been here but we've had no success so far. I'm not discouraged at all though. Every day I try to improve on something. Some days I think about teaching, others I think about praying. The list is endless. The principal is, I try to improve every day. 

Last week I was talking about how difficult the week went because I was in a lot of arguments/debates with people who are very hard hearted. However, the pictures will show the reward I got for faithfully enduring the hard times. Here's my "lesson for the week". If stand your ground and fight for your beliefs in the service of the Lord, He WILL reward you. This week was FAR better than last. I don't think I'll write a hugely long email this week. That's because I have a series of pictures Elder Lynch took of me that'll blow your mind. Enjoy the pictures:)

Love Elder Ben

P.S. I would like for you and mom to make Elder Lynch peanut butter bars for his homecoming. He showed me the "White Chocolate Wonderful" peanut butter.

Elder Sharp and Elder Money helping me slip into this black body sock thing.

Making adjustments 

Getting ready

Still dressing

Suiting up

Starting to come together

Final adjustments

Ready to serve the Empire

Stop!

Stormtoopers in Louisville!

How cool is this? Stormtrooper Elder Cox

"Let me see your identification."
The man who owns the armor is named Steven. Steven's neighbor happened to pull into their driveway
when I had the armor on so Steven told me to go out and ask for identification. 
The neighbors were next to dumbfounded. 

"These aren't the droids we're looking for."
Steven's neighbors told me to go around the truck and talk to the kid in the back. He was speechless.
I extended my arm for a handshake and it took him a good 10 seconds for him to extend his.

"You can go about your business.
Move along... move along."

No words can describe how awesome I felt!

This was so fun!

"Hi."

Let me explain the importance of these Certificates. They certify that the armor and the gun I had were printed off of the original molds used in the original 1970's Star Wars movie "A New Hope". They are the very next best thing to having one of the original sets from the movies. For how accurate they are, they aren't as expensive as I thought. Steven only paid about $1500 for the armor and the gun. For some reason Lucas Films has an import ban on the U.S. Steven had to buy the armor and have one of his friends in England send it to him. 

Tornado...!

June 29, 2015

Dear Family,

I actually really like getting email from the family through the week. I check every day. It's not distracting at all. I check it when Elder Lynch and I are updating the AreaBook Planner App at the church. In "The District" you see the missionaries use paper planners and area books. With the iPads they gave us an app that combines both digitally. They actually have videos of how to use the app on Gospel Library. They're confusing and not very well made but at least you'll get an idea of the tools we have now. The videos should be under the Missionary section in Gospel Library. 

It's been pretty hot lately. I still don't like humidity. I don't have anything too profound this week. It was a harder week than most. That's because I'm growing and Satan doesn't like it. That's just further proof that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Corydon was kinda rough this week. I've had more people question/mock/persecute the Church and my beliefs this week than I've had my entire mission. The weather was also kinda rough. Over the past few nights there have been pretty strong storms and apparently one of them was an F1 tornado that went right by our apartment. There were some pretty good sized limbs and trees that were broken and on the ground. One limb in particular was about a foot and a half wide. That thing snapped right where it attached to the tree. It was literally just behind our apartment. I won't go into the people part since this email would just be full of complaints. *sigh*... I just don't like the larger presence of negativity this week. 

I think I know why this week was more negative than others. Lately, the mission leaders have been putting an emphasis on being bold. Being bold is both a strength and a weakness on my part. I'm bold with large crowds but much less so with individuals or small groups. With that, I read somewhere that being bold is a spiritual gift you can pray for. So I did. And the first time I tried that I got a lot more negativity than normal. I don't consider that a coincidence. As frustrating as it is, it's all a learning experience. I'm still keeping my head level and I'm still having just as much fun as ever in the mission field. This week has just been rougher than normal since Satan realizes I'm trying to grow in ways he's not very happy with. In the words of Elder Spaulding "Man... I hate Satan!"

There were some pretty funny things that happened. Elder Lynch was helping someone get a bee out of their car and he did that by using his planner to swat it. The bee was stuck to it. Another funny thing was Elder Lynch and I went to Subway and their soda machine was completely out. Everything tasted like soda water/club soda. Elder Lynch said "Well, that's just a sign you need to let up on soda." 

I still don't like dogs. Just last night I went to a member who has the huge dog. That thing was jumping all over me and it wouldn't go away. I'll have to get pictures of the thing next time I go over which as far as I know, will be next week. 

Sorry for the short email this week. Pictures are on the way

Thank you,

-Elder Ben

Sister Brough, Elder Lynch, Elder Cox, President Brough
at Mission Home, April 14, 2015

The best peanut butter in existence.
When you go to Elder Lynch's homecoming, I want you to make a batch of peanut butter bars out
of this peanut butter for him. Any other peanut buttery thing we make as a family
WILL be made out of this peanut butter from now on. 

In the car...

Cool picture

Indiana countryside

More Indiana countryside

Fake babies...
The wife of one of the members here makes these highly realistic, silicone babies for fun.
She charges $2000 for them. Some people buy them for comfort items. 

Yep, still fake.