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!