Large plates & small plates

May 23, 2016

Dear Family,

I'm going to start doing emails a little differently again. A few months ago I attempted to do a sort of small and large plates of Nephi thing. That didn't last long. I'm going to start doing it again and put it all in one even bigger email. The "Large Plates" section will be what happened this week. The "Small Plates" section will be what I learned in my studies or experiences this week.

So, here we go!

-Large Plates-

Monday
As per usual, we played disc golf for 3 hours. I really wish we had more time to play. Elder Gardanier lost his disc. He threw it in the creek in the exact same spot I threw mine in a long time ago. I don't remember if I told you that. The very first disc I bought when I got to Owensboro I wound up loosing in the creek after using it for 6 weeks. For some reason those things don't float. They sink faster than rocks. I don't understand it! They weigh almost nothing!

Not a whole lot happened from 6-9 proselyting. We were supposed to meet with a LA we can never contact, but she fell through. This wound up setting the regular tone for the week. A lot of stuff fell through and not a lot of lessons were taught. But it was still a fun week, overall.

Tuesday
We stopped by Miss El's briefly and shared a quick message. We wound up being her alarm :). She a super nice lady. She has a 3 year old daughter who reminds me of Little Miss when she was that age.

Later we went to Sis S's home and taught her BF. She and her family moved into the ward a few weeks ago. We were finally able to get in and talk with her BF. We intended to talk with all of them, but Sis S had to leave, so we just met with him. Sis S is a member but her BF's not. He met with missionaries in the town they just moved from. He liked the discussions. He's slowly warming up. Most of the lesson was in Spanish so I didn't do much. He can speak good English so I was able to contribute a little. He's beginning to have a testimony.

Later, we taught a man named Jeremy some Spanish. Usually we teach English to Spanish people, not the other way around. Jeremy used to learn Spanish from the sister missionaries but stopped when they were transferred out of Owensboro. He recently started texting us and set up a time to meet. He was a nice guy. He knows a lot about how Spanish works. He just needs to memorize phrases now.

On Tuesday night we had splits like usual. I went out with Bro Emmert. We did a lot in the space of 2 hours. We visited a LA, an active member, and a man named Reg who Elder Salazar and I met the other night. Reg is Micronesian. He's a great guy. He works a ton
at Shogun. For the past year he's been working there so he could get enough money to  bring his wife and kid from Colorado to Kentucky. We had a great, short lesson with him. We introduced the BoM and committed him to read it. He accepted. It was one of those member-present lessons that was short, but powerful at the same time. Bro Emmert did a great job testifying of the BoM. He loves that book. 

Wednesday
Not a whole lot happened for the first part of the day. We wound up helping Des clean her apartment and make no-bake cookies. Her health is pretty bad so she doesn't have the strength to do things like that for very long. She can do them, but she can only do about a minute or so at a time before she needs to rest.

Later on we met with Ms Val. Her son got surgery on his head the other day and she was asking him what he wanted to eat. He said pizza. She then asked us what pizza we like and ran out to get them. While she was gone, we visited Bro Smith's sister in her care home. We just shared a short scripture and talked with her for about 15 minutes. I think I decided I don't want to wind up in a care home. After that, we went back to Ms Val's house to find that she bought Papa Johns pizzas and bread sticks. We feasted that night. Further into our visit, Elder Miller, an RM who went home 5 months before I came out, stopped in to visit Ms Val. He wasn't happy she's LA. Back when Elder Miller was here, She was a member for about 2 months. We had a lesson on the Sabbath, and she committed to come this week.

Elder Miller said Owensboro is the area he learned the Bible the best because he met a lot of bashy people out here. I haven't met many bashy people out here but the few I have, I've avoided. I hate bashes. 

Thursday
Elder Gough and I went on an exchange in the bike area. This was my last day working with Elder Gough before he goes home. It was a fun day. We started off teaching Mr Bar. We taught him L3 and he understood it very well. Later on we taught Mr J. He's currently the most progressing investigator in the bike area. We taught part of L5. He liked it as per usual. He told me about his first experiences with the missionaries. When he first met Elder Gough on the streets, he wasn't really in the best mess but as he's met with the missionaries and come to church, he's softened up. Bro Swope has become really good friends with Mr J.

Throughout the day, Elder Gough and I talked to almost 50 people. Elder Gough's TWEing method is the closest thing to a perfect method I've seen so far. It's super simple too. The thing that's the most different with his method is he introduces himself to a person and askes for their name. I realized that it shows you care for a person. There are a couple of other small things that make his method great too, but that's the thing that's the most unique.

At the end of the day we had an interesting experience. We were biking down a big road at a decently fast pace when this other guy on a bike started biking next to us. He said in a half crazy southern accent "Hey you boys! I want you to know that God's got yo back! He's always got yo back". This guy then rode off another road and disappeared.

I finally popped my first tire. I rode off a curb and must have hit something sharp. My back tube is destroyed. I'll have to get a new one. I figured out that bike lasted about 100 miles before I blew a tube out. I'd say that's pretty good.

Friday
In the morning, Elder Gough taught me some things about doing God's will that were really cool. I'll detail those in the small plates. We had District Meeting. Elder Gough trained on the questions of the soul. That's always a classic section in PMG to train on. After the meeting, we exchanged back, weekly planned, TWE'd, and finished the day eating dinner at the fathers & sons camp out at the Fuqua's farm. Normally we wouldn't have gone, but Elder Salazar wanted to use his new fishing gear, and I wanted to meet Jessie who was going to be there.

While I was in the bike area with Elder Gough on Thursday, Elders Salazar and Gardenier were in the car area visiting the Swope's. Jessie, was there this time and sat in on the lesson. They taught the Restoration and Jessie agreed to be baptized the same day as Sherry, June 11. He had quite the  experience earlier that day leading up to that experience.

In the morning he was driving to work, worrying about college, what to do with himself, etc. He was soul searching you could say. He was looking for guidance and answers. He works at a place that makes uniforms and sends them to companies that orders them. On ov the shirts he checked had the name "Jesus" on it and it was to be sent to Mexico City. At first, he didn't realize the significance of that. After work, he felt like he should go to his dad's house. When he got there he found the missionaries, more specifically Elder Salazar, a representative of Jesus from Mexico City. As the missionaries taught the Restoration, he felt the Spirit strongly. More than he ever had. People were crying. Bro Swope was happy. Jessie committed to be baptized. His prayer was answered. Bro Swope mentioned how earlier that morning, he said a special prayer for Jessie, and it was answered that same day.

Jessie drove us to the camp-out Friday night. While there, we ate burgers, hot dogs, and ice cream. Elder Salazar got to fish, and Jessie shared his story over the campfire. It was a good night. Then he drove us home.

Saturday
This was an interesting day. We started off teaching the Gom's. We had a long lesson with them. We're working to increase their testimony. Later, we went to the church for a minute and happened to find Bro Inman carrying in table. We helped him out. Afterwards, we went to the Capeners and had Bro Capener work on Elder Salazar's knee. They wound up feeding us PB&J sammiches. 

We went to 2nd Street again and found the Tin's there. They bought us Coldstone ice cream. It was fantastic! It's been a while since I've had Coldstone.

We finished the night at the Emmert's. Bro Emmert has his own country ham storehouse in his back yard. He buys pigs, kills them, stores them, and eats them. This was the first time I got to try his country ham. It tasted very different from store-bought hams. It was pretty good.

Sunday
Ms Swope and Jessie came to church. They had a great time. After church, we ate at the Fuqua's. They had ham steaks this time. They were fantastic. Sis. Fuqua wasn't feeling too well. She wasn't at church but she came out to eat a little bit. After lunch we studied, then Bro Swope picked us up for the fireside in Evansville. Bro Swope gave his testimony and another recent convert, Bro Osborne bore his too. Both Bro Swope and Bro Osborne have very similar stories and backgrounds. They really connected.


-Small Plates-

So let me first clarify what I'm doing throughout the week to be able to write this section. This is a bit of a daily process I go through. In the morning as I study, I'll write a few notes in my study journal (small plates) of things that stood out to me. For the last 5 or 10 minutes of my study, I sit there and ponder on the things I read. I also make sure to remember the  events of the stories that took place.

Then throughout each day, I'll ask myself "What did you read this morning?" Then I'll go through in my head what I read. After I do that, I'll ask myself "What did you learn this morning?" I'll then go through what I learned in my head. I ask myself those 2 questions
several times each day.

At the end of the day, I'll write down everything I learned or everything that stood out to me in my study journal. I call it my "nightly pondering" session. This whole process is similar to the "ponderizing" thing the church started doing. But instead of a single scripture a week, I do a chapter or two a day. So far it's been working really well for me and I'm going to start sharing my favorite things I learned each week with you. So here we go with that:

1 Nephi 5:21 And we had obtained the records which the Lord had commanded us, and searched them and found that they were desirable; yea, even of great worth unto us, insomuch that we could preserve the commandments of the Lord unto our children. 
Here we read that the brass plates would preserve the commandments unto their children. A thought that occurred to me was if Nephi didn't get these plates, there wouldn't really be much of a Book of Mormon. If there were no BoM there would be no evidence of the Restoration. That would have terrible effects on all of us if there were no Restoration.

1 Nephi 7:20 And it came to pass that they were sorrowful, because of their wickedness, insomuch that they did bow down before me, and did plead with me that I would forgive them of the thing that they had done against me.
21 And it came to pass that I did frankly forgive them all that they had done, and I did exhort them that they would pray unto the Lord their God for forgiveness. And it came to pass that they did so. And after they had done praying unto the Lord we did again travel on our journey towards the tent of our father.
Laman and Lemuel actually sought forgiveness, but they must not have had real intent to change. Otherwise they would have experienced the Atonement and known of the goodness of God. The reason they were so hard was because they didn't know God
(1 Nephi 2:12 And thus Laman and Lemuel, being the eldest, did murmur against their father. And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them.)
Isn't it interesting how something that seems small like that actually has tremendous effects? Nephi knew God, but Laman and Lemuel did not. This is manifested plainly later when they see an angel and still don't understand His power.

1 Nephi 8:5-10 This kinda blew my mind when I realized this. I'm going to compare 1 Nephi 8:5-10 with Ether 12:27. (Ether will be in parentheses.)
5 And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me.
6 And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him. (And if men come unto me)
7 And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste. (I will show unto them their weakness.)
8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies. (I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me and have
faith in me,
9 And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.
10 And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy. (then will I make weak things become strong unto them)

1 Nephi 11:22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. 
Growing up I always thought the tree of life represented Eternal Life. It's actually more symbolic of something else. It represents the love of God. The ultimate expression of that love was Christ and His Atonement. So the tree is Christ, and the fruit is the Atonement.

1 Nephi 11:25 And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God.
When we consider the rod of iron with that symbolism we see that the only way to get to Christ and his Atonement is if we hold fast to the iron rod. The only way we will know of Christ is if we read the scriptures because they're the things that teach about Him.

I realized a lot of prophets were taught about Christ before they received witnesses. Nephi and Alma are examples. Nephi was taught about Christ, but it wasn't until he put faith in his knowledge and acted on it that he got his witness/testimony. Alma was the same way. When he was struck by the angel, he remembered what his father taught: put faith in His knowledge, and acted by calling out to Jesus that he received his witness of Christ and His Atonement.
This was why the brass plates were so important. They taught about Christ and His Atonement. The scriptures are the conduit to an experience with the Atonement. The rod of iron (the scriptures) will lead you to the tree (Christ) and the fruit (the Atonement). No wonder reading your scriptures is a commandment.

God's Will
Alma 53:20 And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all - they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.
The Stripling Warriors were true to the truth. They did God's will because it was their nature to do so. You should start off doing something because God told you to do it, but eventually that reason should change to doing it because it is your nature to do so.
Keep the commandments because it is your nature to do so. God gives us commandments not just to tell us what to do and what not to do. Living the commandments is honestly, the best way to live.

Well, that was this week. It was fun. I'm so happy for Jessie. That'll be the sweetest baptismal service ever. Watching Bro Swope baptize his wife and son.

Thank you so much for the love and support you've given me. You're all awesome! I love you.

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

New disc

At the Library

Storms

May 16, 2016

Dear Family,

This was one of the best weeks I've had in a while. I learned a lot and grew a lot.

Monday
We frolfed a lot. Elder Salazar threw his disc in the creek and in the process of getting it, we all got exposed to a whole lot of fresh, new poison ivy.

Later, we taught Mr Ro, a Spanish LA, about the BoM. He joined the church ~20 years ago but never really had a testimony. We've been meeting with him lately and he says he believes the church is true and good. We're working with him to bring him back.

Tuesday
#StormsAllDay. That about sums Tuesday. In the morning, the maintenance man came to fix our dryer because it hasn't been working at all lately. He found that a bird nest had clogged the vent to the outside, which caused the dryer to clog itself. He fixed it, *yay*. He warned us about a storm that was coming. We didn't really heed his warning.

 We started off trying Mr Cep but he wasn't home. We then started observing these wicked looking clouds in a light green sky. They were heading towards us. I got a really strong prompting that said "Get in the car, Ben!" I soon found out why. About 3 minutes into our drive, it started raining so hard. Our wipers, at full speed, couldn't keep the water off the windshield. We slowly made it back to our apartment at about 5 MPH and when we parked, marble-sized hail started falling from the sky. A lot of it too. There are now several small dents in the car. We had to stay in for about two hours until the storm was calm enough so we could go out and work. Well, the storm didn't really stop. It just went in waves throughout the day. The tornado sirens sounded several times throughout the day. It was crazy!

Later, we got some food at Domino's and the manager gave us a discount because we're missionaries. We finished the night teaching a man named Mr G. He was a referral for us from the "Belders" but we soon found out he was actually a former some previous missionaries taught. He was grateful to have us back. He thanked God for bringing us to his house again. Missionaries dropped him in the first place because he moved and they couldn't find him.

Wednesday
We started off on our bikes. We met someone named Ms Eli and wound up teaching her half of L1. She loved it. She has super strong faith in God and loved talking to us. She easily accepted a BoM and the invitation to read it.

Later, we met with Maku for 5 minutes. She said she really enjoyed our last discussion and wants us to come back. She gave us water. We got a lot of bottles of water throughout the week from people.

Later, the Gomez's fed us Mexican-fried chicken. It was very similar to American-fried chicken. Later, we went to church for missionary coordination. It was storming bad outside. We finished the night visiting Ms Aust. We found our she was never baptized so she's actually an investigator, not a LA.

Our dryer broke again after 1 use. :(

Thursday
This is where things get awesome. We woke up early to drive 2 hours to New Albany. Elder Koposchke of the Seventy came and instructed us similar to what Elder Zwick did last year. This conference was absolutely fantastic. There was so much good to it. What I'm doing now is basically forcing myself to remember what I read in the BoM in my studies. Several times throughout the day, I'll run through what happened in the chapters I read that morning, and remind myself what I learned.

I also finished the BoM highlight activity this week. I've started it over now but am paying even more attention to what happens, and what I learn from it. At the end of the activity, I asked God if the Book of Mormon was true. I got a very simple answer. There was a voice that was so quiet in my head. It was probably more of an idea. But what it said was still just as profound. It said "Ben, you know what's in it. You know it's true." As I thought about that, I realized that what the Book of Mormon teaches is true. Even if it wasn't evidence for the restoration, its testimony of Christ is true. What it teaches is true.

I've replaced TWE's from being #1 in my mind to pondering the scriptures and remembering the Lord. I have become far happier, and I have felt far better. Thank you for all of your prayers and advice. At the end of the day, we drove 2 hours back.

Friday
We saw Mr Ga again. Unfortunately, he doesn't understand the concept of 1 true church. We taught him L1 and committed him to pray. Then, we weekly planned at the library and finished the day seeing Ms Des in the hospital. She's a LA we visit weekly. She was put in the hospital for bronchitis. She's doing okay.

Saturday
We went to the BBQ festival for lunch. There were so many people and so much food! I absolutely love BBQ pork! Later, we saw Elisha and her fiancé Cameron and taught half of L1. They enjoyed it. They have views that are very similar to ours. They still want us to come back.

Then we went back to the BBQ festival to attempt to talk with people there. It didn't work out as well as we wanted. People weren't really in the frame of mind to listen. Something Elder Kopischke said that made me feel really good was when he was talking about TWE's. He said, "This is not a game of seeing how many uninterested people we can talk to. This is not a numbers game. This is about finding the elect." We realized TWEing at the BBQ fest was "seeing how many uninterested people we could talk to." That quote helped me forget about TWE's.

Then we taught Mr Ro again. We read from the BoM with him. We finished the night at the Quintana's house. They are good active family. 

Sunday
I had one of the best church services ever. I remembered almost everything. Along with my forced pondering I'm doing, I write down what I learned from my pondering every night. This has helped my retention. I was able to easily focus on, and remember what people were saying. It was a cool experience. It helped me keep Christ on my mind

Later, Rhett showed up out of nowhere as we were walking on a street. He just keeps doing that. He showed us his church. We happened to be really close to it.

We then ate pulled pork sammiches at the Fedor's. They're always nice to feed us often.

We finished the week at the Tins. We finally managed to get their entire family together and teach them about the BoM. It was a great experience. Bro Tin is the only member but he's LA. He still has a testimony, though. They said they were going to come to church for Memorial Day weekend. His wife and his 3 kids are all baptismal age. They're super nice people. I feel like it won't be to hard to reactivate Bro Tins and get his family baptized. They even fed us ice cream. I love ice cream.

Well, that was this week. It was an adventure. Full of healing and happiness. Thank you for all your support. You really helped. I feel like I gained the strong testimony of Christ. Not only gained, but it was made stronger because He made His goodness known unto me. 

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

April Zone Conference

Frolf in heavy rain - 3 weeks ago

Elder Salazar, Elder Gardenier, Elder Gough, Elder Cox
Frolf - 2 weeks ago

 

Frolf - last week!

Call!

May 9, 2016

Dear Family,

This email is going to be short because I just barely talked to you yesterday. Thanks for talking to me. I miss you all like crazy. 

For the most part this week was pretty dead. Almost nothing happened. For some reason all of our investigators disappeared at the same time. We didn't teach much this week.

Wednesday was interesting. We were walking in Rhett's neighborhood and in the distance we saw a guy walking towards us. We started walking towards him to contact him. As we got closer, Elder Salazar joked about it being Rhett. About 5 seconds after he said that the guy in the distance yelled, "Hey guys!" It was Rhett. Both of us were like, "No way!" He was the guy we met who really liked us for what we do, but argued stupid doctrines in lessons. When we got to him, he said he wanted to start meeting with us again. Great!

Later we went to McDonald's and on the side of my pie was 730. It helped me remember why I'm out here. 

I loved talking with all of you yesterday! I love you all so much! You mean a lot to me.


-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

So fun to talk on Mother's Day!

Winking Jesus

Oh... Just Missionary Work

May 2, 2016

Dear Family,

This was another week in this strange adventure we call missions. This week was full of missionary work. There were a few things that happened that were fantastic. Now that I think about it, this was one of the higher quality weeks I've had out here.

Monday
This was easily the best P-Day I've had in Owensboro and one of the best on the mission so far. We started off with Jason taking us to the zoo in Evansville. It wasn't too big but it was still pretty cool. They had a lot of animals there. One part was this giant greenhouse that was supposed to emulate the Amazon. It was HOT. And extremely humid. While we were on this zoo trip we saw the giraffes. There was a ledge where you could get close to the giraffe and pet it. One of the giraffes tried to lick Elder Salazar while he was on the ledge.

After the zoo we went to the mall to check out some of their clothing stores. No Red Chapter shirts. Red Chapter has ruined me for most other shirts. Then we got pizza for lunch and headed back to Owensboro.

Later we were walking around, talking with people, and we contacted a really nice LA named Ms A. She's not on the records. She grew up in the church but somehow got separated from it. She still likes the church and the missionaries. Somehow she just never developed a true testimony. We asked her if she'd like us to visit and she said yes. We also met with Ms Jes, a young mom we've taught on and off. She's busy all the time so it's hard to get in with her. We simply read from the BoM to try to raise her interest in it and understand how serious it is.

At the end of the day when we were writing down our daily mileage in the car (we have to keep track of that), a Papa Johns driver pulled up next to us. We both got out of our cars at the same time. We said "Hi" to each other as he picked up 2 pizzas and 2 desserts. When I saw that I thought "Man, whoever got that is lucky." We held the door open for him and to my surprise he went straight for our door and knocked on it. I was like "YES! That's us!" We unlocked our door, paid for the pizzas, and ate. I was so happy! Thanks for sending those! They made an amazing P-Day even better!

Tuesday
This day wasn't as exciting as Monday. 90% of it was trying people and talking with everyone. We did teach one lesson. We taught Ms Tam. She's a 15 year old we met a few days ago who's interested in the church. Her grandmother was a member. We taught her the first lesson and she took it well. We set up an appointment for later in the week.

For splits not much happened. We had this wicked storm come in right when splits started. It lasted for 2 hours. Elder Gough and I went with Bro Emmert. We tried a few people but the storm kinda killed our chances of success.

Wednesday
We started off helping Bro Smith move a washer and dryer. Later, we had a surprise lunch and lesson with the Vans. We taught them about keeping the Sabbath holy. They keep guaranteeing that they'll come, but they never do. Something always happens to keep them from coming. Later we met with Ms Tam again. We reviewed L1, and committed her to June 4th. She's happy about that but I don't think her family will be. She has a rougher family.

We did missionary coordination a little different this week. Instead of meeting at Bro Emmert's house Saturday night, we went to the church Wednesday night with most of the ward missionaries. We talked about who we're working with. They offered themselves for lessons. During our meeting another wicked storm happened. This one actually started a tornado just a couple of miles from the church. Everyone's tornado warnings on their phones were going off. No one got hurt. There was just a lot of water coming from the sky.

We had the best stress reliever on Wednesday night. We played dodge ball with the deacons and teachers. Bro Tidwell, the young men's president, had adults vs. youth the entire time. So there were 4 elders and Bro Tidwell against 6 or 7 youth. We destroyed them. We gave so many head shots. We won every game. At the end of most of the games, all 5 adults would gang up on the last kid and pummel himnwith dodge balls. This was the best stress reliever I've ever had on my mission. As we were driving the Belders home, we were talking about how good we all felt. Months and months of stress was just released.

Thursday
We saw Mr Ki and geeked out even more. We read out of the BoM with him. He still enjoys it. He enjoyed church. Later we went to the Swopes. Ms. Swopes made burgers and hot dogs. We helped Bro Swope set up hammocks in his back yard. During the lesson Ms Swope said she wanted to be baptized before August. She set her own date for June 11. It was amazing that she finally changed her mind. Missionaries for over a year, included myself, have been trying to get her baptized and she finally committed. She's had dates before, but she wants to actually do it now. Bro Swope's going to the temple soon. He got baptized last year and now he's close to getting his endowment. He's excited.

Friday
We gave the training at district meeting this week. We trained on Chapter 11 in PMG which is "How Do I Help People Make and Keep Commitments." That was a subject I've been thinking about lately. The training went well. We found we actually prepared too much. We had to cut it short. After the meeting we went out to Cheddars. I got salmon. Salmon's good. :)

After we got back to the apartment my strength utterly failed me and I had to rest. We went into the apartment with full intention to leave and work but my body would not allow me to do that. It was a strange experience. After a short rest, we went to work. We met with the Tins and introduced the BoM to them. We found out they don't believe any church to be 100% true. That's funny considering they were baptized. They're good people but it might take them a long time to come back.

Saturday
We went up to Rockport IN for half the day. There are absolutely no potentials or formers in our area book for that town. It's a decent size. Maybe half or so the size of Corydon. We happened to be there when there was a huge auction going on. Someone recently died up there and everything he had was auctioned off. We walked around some of the auction tents. He had a lot of crap. We met several nice people up there. The town reminded me of Corydon.

Unfortunately Bro Emmert cancelled our usual Saturday night dinner so we went to Wendy's with the Belders. After Wendy's, we went to visit a LARM (Less Active Returned Missionary) we've been trying to get in with for a while. We met him before but weren't able to sit with him until Saturday. Unfortunately he wants nothing to do with the church now. He served his mission in California from 1999-2001. He obviously never developed a testimony because he went LA just a few years after. We won't be visiting him anymore. It's sad that LARM's exist. That was a big reason President Hinkley started Preach My Gospel.

We finished the night with a surprise meal from a Spanish member. That was a happy note to end the night on.

Sunday
We went to church, then we went to the Capeners for back adjustments and waffles, then we went to the Fuquas for ribs, then we studied. That was half our Sunday.

Later we tried a potential named Vic. We met Vic for the first time a couple weeks ago, but weren't able to get in with him until Sunday night. We knocked on the door, he talked with us for a couple minutes, then he had his wife, Maku, come out and introduce herself, then Maku invited us in to see their business. They make graduation scarfs for a lot of colleges in the US. Some big ones too, like Yale. They moved from Ghana some time ago. They both have a lot of sweet African decorations in their house. Their accents are cool, too. We introduced the BoM to them and they took great interest in it. Maku loves Jesus. Anything to do with Jesus, she's for it. I gave them Tessa's BoM with her testimony in it. They were super grateful for that. Maku thought it was really sweet. They said they'll read it and I think they will. Thank you Tessa, for giving me your BoM. They're both super nice people. They already act like members. That was this week. A lot happened. I feel like my strength's returning. Thank you for everything. You're the best family ever!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Elder Salazar, Elder Gardenier, Little Miss, Elder Hansen, Bro Swope, Elder Cox, James, Ms Swope

Us on the Swope's back porch for dinner... Praise the Sun!

Giant pancakes at Dee's Diner!