Easter

March 28, 2016

Dear Family,

This was a long week. I got a new companion and Elder Gough got a new companion. That means the areas were split in two, and so was the area book. We spent a lot of time "finding." Normally I don't like finding, but for some reason, I actually loved it this week. I had a lot of fun with it.

Here's the breakdown of the week.

Monday
It was the first ever official 2016 Jasper District Frolf Tournament! (Frisbee Golf) All the elders in the district came down to throw discs at chain cages! It was a blast! I didn't win but I still had fun. My new Wraith disc was super fast.
Later, I got to teach Mr B for the last time. We went over some commandments. He liked it. Then some members took us out to Denny's for dinner.

Tuesday
Elder Passmore left early in the morning. Elder Gough and I spent the morning moving his stuff back to his apartment. After that we helped some members move (destroy) a desk. It was an old desk. It was Heavy! 
After the desk, our new companions came. And you know the first thing we did with them? We took them to Moonlite BBQ. That place is dangerously good! After Moonlite, we took the bike elders back to their apartment and Elder Salazar got settled in ours. 
After he settled in, we went TWEing. (Talking With Everyone - It's just a funny way of saying "contacting everyone on the streets") Because Elder Salazar's English isn't perfect, people actually listen to him. It's great! We contacted this crazy Pentecost that started crying because he believed we weren't baptized properly and going to Hell. Oh Pentecost's, how they amuse me.
Later, we went on splits with the members. I went out with Bro Emmert. We gave a member a blessing and taught some investigators. As always, blessings are awesome!

Wednesday
We did a lot of finding. A lot of TWEing. We taught a couple lessons and man! For learning English on his mission, Elder Salazar is a boss at teaching. He's easily the best companion I've had that teaches often from the scriptures. I figured out why. Since English is his second language, he has to rely on the scriptures more than any native English-speaking missionary to articulate what he wants to teach. 
I had an abnormally good morning study. I read about Nephi in the Book of Helaman and about his prediction of the chief judge's murder. I noticed how crazy specific his prophesy on the judge's murder was. It was a testimony builder for me that I, too, can receive revelations like that, if necessary. Because I spent last transfer working both areas, I don't know the car area as well. We're basically reopening it. At the moment, we don't have a lot to work with. So I have to rely on the Lord more now, to tell me where to go. I think that's why I was happy in all the finding I did this week. Making me happy was the Lord's way of saying "Keep it up, you're doing good."

Thursday
Elder Gough needed to borrow the car Thursday morning to drive up to Jasper. While he was gone, we did our weekly planning and then biked up to an appointment. On the way up, my back tire popped. Right at the moment I started walking, it started raining heavily. That could have not been timed better. Eventually, we got the car back. 
Later on, we taught the Swopes. Elder Salazar, as usual, had a lot of scriptures to back up what we were saying. This lesson wasn't as profound as last week's but it was still good. Bro. Swope drove us back in their new Dodge Dart. That was a nice car! It felt great and handled well. I may have been convinced to get one when I get home. :) Elder Jensen has a Dart. He really likes it.

Friday
District meeting. Nothing extraordinary happened other than me finding a brand new crisp, freshly printed $20 bill on the ground. :D:D:D It was right after a guy rudely waved us off :):):)

Saturday
We had a ward Easter party in the morning. It was a lot of fun. They had breakfast and a lot of stories about Jesus. A lot of the ward members were there. Later, we taught the G family. They're the only full-Spanish speaking family in the ward. Sis G's mom was recently baptized. While we were there, we found out that they and Elder Salazar have some mutual friends in Nashville. They became instant friends because of that.
Later, we went to Bro Emmert's for missionary coordination. We ate pulled pork sammiches on his back porch. The weather was really nice. He also showed me his bikes. I'm going to buy a bike soon and I got some good recommendations from Bro Emmert. 

Sunday
Easter Sunday. There were some good talks and lessons at church. After church, we went to the Fuqua's for Easter lunch. And basically after that, we went to the Capener's for Easter dinner. While we were there, they set up an Easter egg hunt for us. So, for like 5 minutes, there were 4 missionaries running around a yard, shoving each other out of the way for Easter eggs. They also had Easter baskets hidden for us. It was really fun. 
After that, Elder Salazar and I drove up to Evansville with the Swope's for an investigator fireside. There weren't many people there but the Spirit was really strong. Everyone who talked was a convert and they all had super good testimonies. I think recent converts always have the best testimonies. For members who have been members forever, or who grew up in the church, it's really easy to give a "routine testimony". The kind of testimony you've heard a million times from other members. But recent converts are able to give a testimony that's a lot more sincere because they're still extremely grateful to be members of the church. For long-time members, being a member becomes second nature and is something you can autopilot through. But for recent converts, being a new member is their world. It means everything to them. I've tried to remember that and make sure when I'm giving a testimony, I make it sincere and real. 

Well that's it folks! See ya next week!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Selfies at the Fuqua's for Easter lunch.

Easter basket I got at the Capener's for Easter dinner.

The Fam at Elder Jensen's homecoming.

Crazy Transfers!

March 21, 2016

Dear Family,

Yes! Elder Gough will be getting a new companion tomorrow. Here's the transfer news. I'm staying, Elder Passmore is leaving to be a district leader in Clarksville, IN. Elder Gough is staying and getting a new companion. Owensboro will be split between two sets now. Elder Gough and his companion will cover most of the inner city and my companion and I will cover the rest of the boundaries. 

My new companion's going to be Elder Salazar. He's from Mexico. English is his second language. He's actually from my group. I didn't meet him until I was at the mission home though. At that time he didn't know ANY English. He's had to learn it out here. It'll be interesting working with him. Elder Passmore used to be companions with him. He said he's good and that his English is good, too.

Just like the first week in Owensboro, this last week was pretty crazy. This transfer has easily been the craziest transfer of my mission so far. I had a lot of fun, I learned a lot, and I was able to see the Lord work His miracles more than ever before. I had a lot of fun in this trio. I'm a little sad it'll be over. I'm also sad I was only with Elder Passmore for 1 transfer.

Here's the breakdown

Monday
During our weekly frolf (frisbee golf) practice, each of us lost a disc. Where we play there's a few creeks and lakes that you can easily throw your discs into if you're not careful. For some reason, golf discs don't float. They sink really fast. Unfortunately, we threw our discs into the water. Afterwards we went and bought more to replace them. We also got ice cream to drown our sorrows in.
Later that night, we met with the Sc family and showed them the Easter video. They liked it. For being baptized back in November, they're doing great. I enjoy teaching them. During our visit they all had their guitars out.

Tuesday
We did some biking on Tuesday. It was super nice outside here. We taught a man named Mr B. We first met him back at our Stake Conference last week. The Evansville sisters introduced us to him. Recently, he started dating an active member who lives in Evansville. He started taking interest and had the missionaries over. The sisters taught him a couple lessons in Evansville and then referred him to us because he lives in Owensboro. We had a great lesson with him. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He took genuine interest in it. His girlfriend gave him a replica of the original 1830 BoM for him to read out of. He reads consistently. He said he tries to read 4 chapters a day. Every commitment we talked about, we found he had already committed himself to it before we taught him, like pray, read, and come to church. He told us he and his GF searched out the church here and drove by it. He's such a cool guy! We set another appointment for Wednesday.
Later, we went out on splits again. Elder Gough and I went with Bro Emmert. We helped him with some of his home teaching. I enjoy helping members out.

Wednesday
We met with Mr B again. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and found out his GF told him about it a while ago and that he committed himself to live it 2 weeks ago. The only thing he had to give up was tea. It was crazy to have a WoW lesson like that. Every other time we teach that, we get crap because almost everyone here violates it in some way. Everyone smokes. Later we had a lesson with Miss Al in the library. We went over the 10 commandments. It was another perfect lesson as always with her.

Thursday
We went on exchange with the Tell City Elders. Elder Thompson came here with Elder Passmore and me. We did service for a senior couple who's going on a mission to Washington DC. They're selling their house so they had us over to help move stuff. This service took most of the day. We had two member meal appointments at the same time that night so we had to split up. I went to the Swope's, a part-member family. Bro Swope first investigated early last year and was baptized about the same time I started my mission. Since then he's been a super strong member with one of the strongest testimonies in this ward. When he was first introduced to the BoM, he used it to quit smoking and drinking.

Every time he got an urge, he read it. He finished the whole book in 3 weeks. Since then, missionaries have been working with his wife to get her baptized but she's had a few issues that have been keeping her from it. When I went over on Thursday, I started off teaching the first lesson and surprisingly, I found the reason. She didn't understand the apostasy and why Joseph Smith was important. Of the many times she's received that lesson, she kept missing that part. I taught everything simply to make sure she understood. She had a lot of questions that bothered her that I answered. I've never had to do a lesson like that. I felt the Spirit so strongly as I was teaching. I feel like she's even closer to baptism. Bro Swope was really grateful for the lesson. He would be super happy if his wife gets baptized. 

Friday
We had district meeting. Later we met with Miss Al again. She wasn't feeling too good so we just watched a Mormon Message movie with her. Later we ate with the Gomez's. They're a really nice family. That about sums up Friday. 

Saturday
There was a University of Kentucky (UK) vs. Indiana University (IU/Hoosiers) game on Saturday. And UK lost. Kentucky started burning. We didn't have much success getting in with people. We also found out transfer news. There were many curveballs this transfer all across the mission. Elder Passmore described it as "President Brough took the mission, cut it in half, and shuffled it." We finished the day at Bro Emmert's. He fed us country ham. It was heavenly. 

Sunday
All 3 of us had to give surprise talks on the Atonement because the assigned speakers went to the ER the night before. We all did surprisingly well. We ate lunch at the Fuqua's. Bro Fuqua gave Elder Passmore some of the most "grandpa-looking" shoes I've ever seen. We ate dinner at the Abel's. They fed us fish. We finished the night meeting with Miss S, a LA who has a crazy life. Her daughter happened to be going through stuff when we arrived so they asked for a blessing. As always, I love giving blessings.

I liked this week. I really liked dinner and the lesson at the Swope's. I felt good helping her come closer to baptism. I also loved to see the progress I've made as a missionary. When I first came out here, there would have been no way for me to teach a lesson and answer
questions like that by myself. The Lord truly has been turning me into the person He needs me to be. 

Unfortunately I won't be seeing Miss Al or Mr B anymore. Both of them are in Elder Gough's area. They will be taught by him and his new companion from now on. There aren't really any solid investigators in the car area so Elder Salazar and I are basically reopening it. 

Thank you all so much! You're the best family! Loves!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

District Photos!

My 2 discs. The left one is a mid-range disc and the right one is a drive disc.

The "frolf" competitors. I lost but it was A LOT of fun!

Another Good Week

March 14, 2016

Dear Family,

Monday
During our weekly visit to Chick-Fil-A, I saw an old man who looked EXACTLY like Grandpa Cox. It was unexpected. Then we golfed and I got my worst score yet at 14. Later, we ate dinner with the Inmans and showed them the new Easter video. It's the one with people from all over the world talking about the resurrection. Next, we read with C and L. They're on track to be baptized but they have word of wisdom issues with tea and coffee so we'll see where that goes.

Tuesday
We met with Co and read with him. We found out he's got some stuff to work on so we're going to have to push his baptism back too. We set another time with him for the next day as we were only there for about 15 minutes. Later that night, we went on splits and I went with Bro. Smith and his daughter B. We tried a few LA's but didn't get in with any. One of them happened to be B's 4th grade teacher. We spoke with her and we found out she's LA because she never read the BoM and never had a testimony. She said she "grew up and found who she was". It makes me sad when I find someone who used to have a testimony but lost it because they found something else or got anti'd. And there are also those who never read the BoM. I guess my point is, don't go less active. If you're a member of the Lord's one and only true church, STAY ACTIVE! I have met less actives who have actual reasons and are great people. I love working with those people and getting them back to church. I'm sad for those less actives who basically apostatize. Don't do that!

Wednesday
We started off TWEing in the pouring rain. Then we met with some less actives. We met for the first time last week and got to know them better. They were your typical old Kentucky couple who are very kind and can talk your ear off. A skill I've had to pick up out here is to tell people I need to leave a half hour before I actually need to leave because it'll take them that long to finish. These LA's today talked, and talked, and talked, and talked, and talked. They didn't even breathe. They just kept taking for an hour straight. It was a good time though. We got to know them better and we invited them to read the BoM. They still love the BoM which is a good sign with a LA. Later, we met with Miss Al in the library with Miss B. 
She's progressing great. She actually wants to be baptized. Miss Bethany is good at fellow-shipping her. They've become great friends. Right after Miss Al, we met with Colton in the library. We found out about even more stuff so we don't know when he's going to get baptized. He still likes the church and meeting with us. We had a good L3 with him. We finished the day showing the Easter video to the Capeners.

Thursday
We had zone meeting in Evansville. There were some good trainings there. I really like big missionary meetings like this because I learn a lot from them. After the meeting, Elder Passmore and I went to Jasper IN on exchange with Elder Neal. Jasper is where Elder Walker was before I got him in Campbellsville. We had a good time in Jasper. Half way up there, we realized Elder Gunnel had the keys to the car with him in Owensboro so we had to go the whole exchange with no car. It actually turned out better for us, because Mr T, an 18 year-old member, drove us around and stayed in lessons with us all day. It was really cool to get that support from him. We ate dinner at the Ahners and Sis. Ahner gave me some soap she made. We finished the day reading Jacob 5 with a returning member. I actually love that chapter. 

Friday
We started TWEing for 4 hours. Why did why did we do that? Well... We originally planned 2 hours, but the Owensboro Elders got caught up so they wound up being two hours late. We walked two hours from the apartment and two hours back. We got back at the apartment right when they got there. We contacted 2 less actives in that 4 hour walk. I've actually contacted a lot of less actives in my mission. They've all been nice people too. We drove an hour back to Owensboro and helped a LA sweep and mop her floor. She had a nifty $200 dollar mop imported from 2020. It worked really well. Later we met with Miss Al but Miss B
wasn't able to come. We read with her and answered more of her Q's. 

Saturday
Not a whole lot happened for the first part of the day. We had the first session of Stake Conference today. Before we went, Bro Shelby fed us dinner. He's a good cook. The talks given were all really great talks. I haven't had a Stake Conference that good in a while.

Sunday
Mr R drove us to the second session of Stake Conference. The talks were good again. After the conference, we ate at the Fuqua's who always know how to kill us with food. Them we met with a man named Ce we contacted a few days ago. We introduced the BoM to him and he seemed genuinely interested. We set up another time for next week. Then we went to the Fedor's for dinner. Miss B was there and she brought Miss Al. Meals in members homes are rare. It was good we were able to do that. We showed them the Easter video.

That was this week. It was another good week in the mission. Nothing extraordinary happened like teaching 6 Muslims or getting eaten by dogs but it was still fun. My favorite part was the exchange in Jasper. I really liked seeing Elder Walker's old area. 

Loves!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

This Week was a Blessing

March 7, 2016

Dear Family,

This week was far better than the last. One of the best things I learned early on in my mission was when things get hard, blessings are on the way. I have never forgotten that. And every time something has gotten hard, there's been a blessing for it. This week was a blessing for the last week.

Monday
Leap day P-Day! We went up to Grandview, IN to meet with the Tell City Elders for disc golf. They have a small course in Grandview. We had a lot of fun. Towards the end, these 2 eight year old kids showed up and asked if they could play with us. We said sure. So we threw discs around with them for a bit. We played a game where we raced to get the disc in the basket. We, of course, let the kids win but they were no less happy in their victory. One of them said "Wow, 2 kids bested 5 grown-ups!" That was the first time I was ever called a "grown-up" by a kid. Later we met with Ms Cl and Miss L and read with them. They're mother and daughter investigators. They both are happy to be getting baptized. We had to push their date back though, because of coffee, but it didn't seem like too big of an issue. Later we met with Randy, a recent convert, and had a lot of laughs as he read a letter he wrote to a JW explaining why he doesn't want to join their church. He's such a cool member.

Tuesday
We started off eating at Burger King. A member here is a manager there so she invited us out to lunch and paid for us. That was nice of her. Later we met with a Micronesian member who had a nice grass mat in her house. It has been a while since I've seen one of those. At the end of the day I went out with Bro. Emmert on splits. Unfortunately we didn't get in with anyone but I did get a good story out of it. We went by some recent converts, who have some highly-untrained, huge pit bulls, to see how they're doing. We knocked on their door, they opened it and 3 of these huge dogs came out and tackled me. By now I'm pretty used to big dogs jumping on me, but these ones jumped and basically punched me in the face with their mouths. They cut my upper lip and a spot on my chin with their teeth. They continued to jump on me until I was pushed to the edge of their porch which had to have been 2.5 feet of the ground. Somehow, I didn't fall off it. I stepped off. To be honest, it had to have been angels of the Spirit that guided my steps because my adrenaline was going so hard at this point, I wasn't thinking straight. Everything happened so fast. Well, I stepped off and these stupid dogs wouldn't let up. They didn't cut my anywhere else other than the initial tackle, but they were still trying to get on me. Eventually the owners came out and took the dogs in. Bro. Emmert and I left after that. (My everlasting hatred towards dogs has increased. My face was pretty sore for a few days after this.)

Wednesday
We met with Miss Al again. Miss Bey, the daughter of a member who also goes to high school with Miss Al was there to help with the lesson as well. We had a lesson solely on the Godhead to teach her about them. It was a great lesson. She had a lot of great questions. We found out she plays drums. She said we should play sometime. Unfortunately she doesn't have her set anymore. :(  Later we ate dinner at the Gomez's. They fed us roast beef and rice. It was fantastic. They're good cooks.

Thursday
We had interviews with Pres. Brough. They went really well. Pres. Brough issued me a new temple recommend because somehow my old one got water in it and it destroyed the barcode. During interviews, Elder Gough gave a good training on how to do "Come to Jesus" lessons with your investigators. Those are basically an investigators last chance before you drop them. You only teach those lessons if they're not keeping any commitments. Later we tried teaching J, the 12 year old the Plan of Salvation. But due to the thousand other kids in the house, it wasn't the best lesson. J is still a cool kid. He just doesn't have the best living circumstances. It was hard to teach him with that many distractions there. But he still got the point. Later we met with Sis. Re. A LA I didn't meet until today. She's a nice lady. Her life's hectic right now so she asked us for a blessing. I got to give the blessing. I still love giving blessings. I just feel like I'm doing a large amount of good with them.

Friday
All the early day stuff fell through but that's okay. We got to meet with Miss Al again later. We taught her L2 and it went really well. Miss Bey was there again. Miss Al had a lot of questions. She's asking smart questions. It's cool to see, because we get a lot of people who don't ask questions because they either don't care, or think they already know stuff. Miss Al's questions are the kind of questions people ask when they want to truly know for themselves. She also told us more about her PT. She regularly goes to Marine Physical Training to see if that's something she wants to do after high school. She told us how she had to "carry a 160 lb. guy and only dropped him once." You wouldn't think she could endure PT from looking at her, because she's pretty skinny. But she goes regularly because she enjoys it. And apparently she endures it well. She reminded me of the girls I had to spar with in martial arts. To be honest, the girls would hit way harder than the guys. I would take fighting a guy any day over fighting a girl.

Saturday
The Zone Leaders came by to give Elder Gough a training for him to do at zone meeting later on. They trained him on how to use the new Easter video in member missionary work. As missionaries, we have access to the Easter video before the rest of the world. It's pretty cool. :) Then, we and the zone nerds went to "Moonlight" for lunch. "Moonlight" is a famous Kentucky restaurant that's only found in Owensboro. It specializes in BBQ food. MAN, WAS IT GOOD!! I was in heaven! I haven't had food that good from a restaurant in a long time. Later we met with the member who's the manager at Burger King. We only had time to share a brief scripture with her. We shared Alma 27:18: "Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness," which is actually a dang good scripture you don't hear quoted very often. We finished the day with Bro. Tindall. He lives in the boonies. He is a nice guy who had a very large, friendly dog, unlike the dogs from Tuesday. Bro. Tindall told us about his yearly Easter egg hunt he runs for the kids in the neighborhood. He said he's going to have to hide over a thousand eggs this year.

Sunday
Went to church. It was fun. I had a neat revelation about the sacrament. The sacrament is meant for remembering the Savior and His sacrifice more than trying to learn something new. You can learn something new, but its primary purpose is to help you remember and
renew your covenants. I thought that was cool. Not much else happened for the rest of Sunday.

We haven't gone back to see our Muslim friends. We probably won't. It was more of an interesting encounter than an opportunity for serious teaching. They were all super friendly, like every Muslim I've met out here.

I know baptisms aren't what describes a successful missionary. PMG has a nice successful missionary section on page 10. Although I'm saddened by all the "almosts" I've had, baptisms are not what's keeping me out here. They've never been what's keeping me out here. I am out here serving because I know that God was with me throughout my life. He has helped me through every trial I've had. I've always known that. Even from an early age. Because of that, I've always wanted to repay Him. I know I'll never be able to fully repay Him, but I feel serving a mission is a good place to start. Even though I'm saddened, I don't consider myself a failure as a missionary. I actually consider myself as extremely successful.

Well that was this week. You're all awesome!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

"Smile! You're in America!"

"John 3:16 is in the middle of this close-up."

We got this really, really cool picture of Jesus Christ this week. 

"The Gospel According to St. John" by Sandra Jelinek