Revelation

June 27, 2016

Dear Family,

This was a good week. We're starting to teach more lessons. I had a few sweet planning sessions with some strong revelation. It was 100 degrees outside most of the time. Oddly, I was happier than normal. I've noticed lately that I've been generally happier than normal. Everything's easier when I'm happy.

-> Large Plates <-
-Monday-
We washed the car for an upcoming zone conference. Later we went bowling with Jason. We bowled 5 games. Towards the end I was just throwing balls down the alley to get it over with. My hand hurt so much. Then we shopped. I found the best smelling air fresheners in existence. I found Gain-scented car air fresheners. It might be weird but that's my favorite scent in the world.

Something I've gained an appreciation for over my mission is air fresheners. When I first got to Corydon, the apartment had a strong cigarette smell from the next-door neighbors. So Elder Lynch and I bought a couple of those Air Wick fresheners you plug into the wall and that fixed the cigarette smell quite easily. Ever since then I've had air fresheners in all my apartments and all the cars I've driven in. And now they make Gain-scented fresheners :).

Later that night we met with Ms H. J was there. J is one of the "Belders" most-progressing investigators and he happens to be best friends with Ms H. Crazy right? We also taught a new investigator named Ms Mel. We met her a few weeks ago and finally got in with her. It was pretty late so we just introduced the BoM to her. She liked it and wants to read it.

-Tuesday-
We saw Mr G. We're probably going to have to drop him because he's not really progressing. He's not willing to make any big commitments because he believes the church he's going to is the one for him. Later on we tried a referral from the "Belders" named Tri. We thought it was a girl. We went to the house, knocked on the door, and a little girl answered. We asked if her mom was there (we thought it would have been Tri). She said "No, but Snoop is." Then this tall guy who looked exactly like a young Snoop Dogg came to the door. We asked him if Tri was there and he said "Oh yeah, that's me!" So now we have a potential that looks exactly like Snoop Dogg. 

For splits, Elder Murdoch and Gabbi came out with me to see Des. She fed us per usual. We read out of the BoM with her.

-Wednesday-
In Owensboro it's very normal to meet a person who lives in the "Bike" area. We send a few referrals back and forth between us and the Belders. Although lately, they've been going through their area book and referring people who live in our area. They had a lot. Almost 40 of them. So naturally, we have 40 referrals to work through. We spent almost the entire day contacting them. We tried about 30 of them and found out a few of them had moved.

Later that night we taught the Goms about developing a stronger testimony. We're trying to get them to read as a family more. We ate dinner at the Bishop's house and shared a message about Charity and Missionary Work.

-Thursday-
We had to drive to Tell City to begin an exchange with the District leader who is Elder Blake, now that Elder Gough is gone. Elder Blake was the missionary who trained Elder Salazar. I got to take Elder Blake to Owensboro. We had a pretty good day. We talked to a few people and went to the Swopes for service, dinner, and a lesson. In the lesson I asked everyone to share a favorite scripture out of the BoM and Ms Swope was the first one to get hers. It was one she read that morning in her personal study. My goal for the lesson was to point out experiences we all had with the BoM. That's how we know it's true: by experiences. I committed them to continue reading and to ask God of its truth so they can gain more experience. Hopefully this'll help her progress.

As we drove home we had a sweet lightning storm over Owensboro. There was no rain. The sky was almost like a strobe light.

Here's a cool experience. Elder Blake and I stopped at the church for a couple minutes in the middle of the day. When we were there the phone started ringing. We picked it up and it was a local pastor who wanted a representative from the church to come to a multi-faith event they're having at their church and talk about our church. This particular pastor recently visited several church history places like the Sacred Grove and had a fantastic experience. I talked to the bishop and he's going to have Bro Shepherd do it. He's done a lot of stuff like that before. What are the odds that someone would call the church phone which doesn't have an answering machine at a time when we happened to be in the church?

-Friday-
We had Zone Conference in Evansville. President Brough, the Zone Leaders, and the Assistants all gave great trainings. This was one of the best conferences I've had in a while. President Brough trained on doing missionary work by the Spirit. The Zone Leaders trained on planning by the spirit. And the Assistants trained on becoming who God wants you to become. I got some great notes out of the meeting. By the time we drove back, we had an hour to work.

-Saturday-
We helped Bro Fedor move a friend of his in Owensboro. We left a big impression on him. He's a lot more open to the church now.

Later we had a 4 hour weekly planning session. A lot of it was spent talking about certain investigators. We actually got some sweet revelation on how to help. We have this epic 3-part lesson plan to teach repentance using the addiction-recovery videos. I realized when I first got here, that their faith needed to be worked on. Now that that's fixed, we need to help with repentance. When that's over, they should be ready for Baptism. Theoretically. :)

Later that night we saw Ms H again. J was there too. We shared 2 Nephi 27:23 For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith. This is Bro Swope's favorite scripture. They liked it. We're working with H to get her reading regularly. Her kids are reading. She's not.

-Sunday-
The "Belders" gave talks. After church we went to the Fuquas for food. They over-fed us per usual. Then we biked around in 100 degree weather because we're trying to save miles. We met with a man named Ha. He's from Nepal. We met him a few days ago. He's Hindu but he doesn't completely claim the religion. He loves learning about religions and applying his favorite parts. He taught us about Hinduism. They have like 2 or 3 million gods. They worship things that provide life like the sun, the air, trees, ground, etc. It was actually a cool learning experience. We introduced the BoM to him and he really wanted to read it.

We finished the night eating dinner at the Fedors. I was officially over-fed.

-> Small Plates <-

Well, there wasn't anything this week that made me go "Oh, that's cool!! I've never thought of that before!" But lately I've been thinking a lot about personal revelation. This week I had several personal revelations. I feel like it comes over time. Most of the time I don't feel like I'm being led by the Spirit but this week was a little different. I'm not sure what the difference was. Maybe I just needed more revelation than normal for this week or maybe I'm finally learning how to receive personal revelation.

I've come to notice that sometimes it's extremely hard to recognize personal revelation, at least for me it is. It seemed a thousand times easier back in scriptural times. Why? I think it was because there were less distractions back then. I have so much to think about. Everyone does. It can be difficult to give room for the Spirit.

-> Closing Remarks <-

You all have a fantastic week!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Evansville Zone Conference

Starting the New Transfer Right

June 20, 2016

Dear Family,
This was the first week of my 4th transfer in Owensboro. It started off with a "bang". The rest of the week was normal (at least as normal as missions can be) but for some reason Elder Salazar and I were happier than usual. It was nice. It made the work a lot more fun. Here's the week...

-> Large Plates <-
-Monday-
Normal P-Day for the most part. We emailed, shopped, ate, and I got a hair cut. We attempted mountain biking with Bro Swope but I didn't get far into it when I cut my leg on the bike pedal spikes. As I was biking, the pedal slipped off my foot and ran up my leg. At first I didn't realize how bad it was because I didn't look at it and it didn't really hurt. I didn't even groan or anything. It just felt like I hit my leg and scraped it a bit. But when I looked down and saw the cut, I realized it was a lot more severe than I thought. Without question, I needed more medical help than a few band-aids.

Elder Gardanier drove me to an Urgent Care, I checked in, walked to the back, sat down on a nice big medical chair, and had the doctor examine me. He looked at my leg for about 10 seconds, looked at his assistant, and told her, "Tell the nurse we're sewing." At that moment I thought "Great... Here come the needles..." And boy did they come! The assistant had this needle that was probably 3 inches long that she would stick all the way up my leg and inject the numbing stuff as she came out slowly. She didn't stick it into my bone, she went parallel with my leg. The assistant did a few stitches for training and experience and the doctor did the rest. 13 stitches later, another nurse came in and wrapped me up and sent me home.

We drove home, got into our proselyting clothes, and went to the Capeners for Elder Gough's last dinner in the mission. They made breakfast for dinner. Sis Capener halfway freaked out about my leg. After dinner I bought some medial stuff so I could take care of my leg until they remove the stitches and began working like a normal missionary.

We met and had a surprise lesson with Ms H. She's a single mother of 3 kids. She's had a rough life. We talked about how the gospel could help her and she became very interested. She even wanted us to teach her kids. We met with her 2 other times in the week.

-Tuesday-
Elder Gough left early Tuesday morning. He's officially a "dead missionary." Elders Salazar, Gardanier, and I were in a trio for a few hours until the new guy came. We talked to a few people on the streets. It was fun being in a trio again. The new missionary is named Elder Murdoch. I've met him before. He was in English, IN while I was in Corydon. He goes home in August. When he arrived, we gladly broke him into Owensboro by taking him to Moonlite. That restaurant is blessed.

After lunch, Elder Salazar and I began working. We tried a few people and talked with a few people. Later we went on splits. I went out with Chase, Bro Emmert's son. We saw Des and then we saw Vic. We ate dinner with Des. With Vic, we weren't able to share a message but Chase did get to know him a bit. Maku wasn't there.

-Wednesday-
We started Wednesday off by helping Des clean her house with the "Belders." That's something we do occasionally for her. After we finished helping her it started to rain hard. We took the "Belders" home and took shelter. After the storm we saw the Goms and read with them. They're doing okay. We're trying to help strengthen their testimony.

Later we met with Ms H again. We attempted to teach L1 but we didn't make it far because she gets distracted easily and talked about other things. They were all gospel-related but they weren't Restoration-related Still had a good conversation though. She's still open and wants us to teach her and her family.

-Thursday-
We had district meeting. Usually we hold them on Friday's but we had the Spanish conference in Louisville so we moved it to Thursday this week. Elder Blake, the new District Leader, gave a great training about planning. He followed up with the training we had at the last Zone Meeting. Elder Blake was Elder Salazar's trainer. This is his last transfer. He's working in Tell City, IN which is weird because he's a Spanish missionary but he got called to an area with no Spanish people in it.

After District Meeting, we ate lunch at Subway and spent most of the day trying people and talking to people. We finished the night by visiting MA. She's the one who grew up in the church but never got baptized for some reason. We haven't been able to contact her lately so this was going to be the last time we tried and fortunately, she answered. That's happened to me a lot on my mission. I'll lose contact with someone, try their house several times, and when I get to the "last time," they answer. We talked with MA for a bit but she wasn't feeling well so we let her go back inside. She wants us to come by and teach her family. *yay*

-Friday-
We had to wake up extra early to drive to Tell City, and from there drive to Louisville for the Spanish Conference. The "Telders" got a brand new 2016 Nissan Altima. We got to Louisville, and had a good time at the conference. Most of the training was in English, but the last one wasn't. There were a few good things I learned. There were only 3 other English-speaking missionaries there because
there's only 3 more tiger-teams in the mission. I was one of 4 other English missionaries that got to hear this training. In the beginning of the meeting I didn't really care much about what was beint taught because it was for the Spanish missionaries, but when I realized how lucky I was to be there, I started paying more attention. They provided lunch after the meeting, Papa John's pizza. After all that, we drove back, got home, and died from exhaustion and lack of sleep.

When we got out and worked we saw Lil, that old lady we saw a couple weeks ago. We had a decent conversation. She gave us water and said she wanted to come see our church. The rest of the day was normal. We tried people and tried more people. We finished by teaching V. We had a decent lesson with him. We read from the BoM with him.

-Saturday-
We taught Ms H again. This time Bro Swope was there. We found out she is good friends with Jo, one of the "Belder's" investigators. We were able to finish L1 with her. Bro Swope was a great help in the lesson. Her whole family is doing well. Her kids are even reading.

Later, we did our weekly planning and a good chunk of it was spent talking about how to help people get baptized. We have a few ideas now.

-Sunday-
Father's Day! The Relief Society made a lot of pie and cake for the fathers in the ward. We got some too :). After church we went to the Fuqua's and died from excessive amounts of food.

Later we drove by Randy's house and decided to try him. He wasn't at church today we we thought we'd see what's up. We found out he's going to be half-moving to Paducah for his son and granddaughter. He's going to spend the weekends down there and go to church there but he'll be here in Owensboro during the week for work. While we we're there, we played more cards with him. He loves playing cards with missionaries.

We finished the day talking with people. Everyone we talked to was nice. It makes it so much easier to talk with people when they're nice. In fact, most of the people we talked to this week were nice. That's probably why we were a little happier than normal.

-> Small Plates <-
In 2 Nephi 8 there's 2 verses where we are invited to "awake" or wake up. They are verses 17 and 24.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury—thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling wrung out— 
Verse 17 could mean to "awake" from sin because they're "drinking" the Lord's fury. "Awake" here could mean to examine yourself and stop sinning.

24 Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Verse 24 says to "put on thy strength" and "put on thy beautiful garment". I interpret "put on thy strength" to mean that you are stronger to resist sin and temptation than you think which goes along with what verse 17 says. "Put on thy beautiful garment" could easily mean "purify yourself". That especially makes sense when you read the rest of 24.

Another place where waking up is mentioned is in 2 Nephi 4:28.
28 Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.
Here Nephi decided to no longer allow his soul to droop in sin, to rejoice in Christ's victory, and to give place no more for the enemy. He "awoke" you could say. The verses in 2 Nephi 8 are quotes from Isaiah. Nephi loved reading Isaiah and understood him really well. I'm sure he read the verses quoted in chapter 8, pondered them, and realized that because of Christ, there was no need to droop in sin or listen to the enemy because Christ overcame all of that. He told himself to "awake" and rejoice in Christ because He's overcome the world.

Here's something I got from the Spanish conference. President Brough said "Don't give a talk. Prepare to give a talk." You could change the word talk for lesson and the idea stays the same. Don't prepare a talk, meaning don't prepare a heavily-detailed memorized plan for a talk. Rather, prepare yourself in such a way that the Spirit will be able to guide your words in your talk or lesson. Prepare to give.

-> Closing Remarks <-
Something I really appreciate about the mission is how every week is different and unique. Even though most of the time is spent doing things I've done a thousand times at this point, there's still many times to make every week, and every day, unique. When I first came out I loved how "cool stuff happened every day" because I was so new. That's still happening but it can often be hard to notice unless I look back and think about the week and the days.

Thank you all for everything you've helped me out with.

Loves!
-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Spanish Conference - Elders

Spanish Sisters

I'm Staying!

June 13, 2016

Dear Family,

I'm Staying! As you can see from the title, I'm staying a 4th transfer in Owensboro. That means I'll spend a total of 6 months by the end of it. That also means I'll be staying with Elder Salazar for a 3rd transfer. I've never gone that long with a companion and neither has he. We're pretty decent friends so I don't think we'll have any problems. Here's the week in review...

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-
We went frolfing. None of us did well. Elder Gough even lost his disc. He threw it into the creek. I've never been able to figure out why discs don't float. They weigh almost nothing. After our frolf game we got ice cream.

Later that night we visited Vic and Maku for a minute. They were pretty busy preparing for a festival they were going to later in the week. Then we met with Ms Val, the LA Elder Lynch's trainer baptized. She was a little stressed out with life. Her 14 year old son recently got tested for cancer on this lump on his head. The doctors cut it off, tested it, and said it wasn't cancer but they're going to see if the lump grows back or not.

-Tuesday-
We met with a guy named Cain. The "Belders" referred him to us a while ago but we weren't able to teach him until today. Cain loves the Bible. He knows a lot about it. He knows a lot about Jesus and God and loves trying to live like them. We taught him L1 and also about our church services and he liked everything he heard. He said he would like to check out the church. He loves taking notes. His Bible is heavily marked up and he always reviews the notes he takes on things.

Later I went out with Bro Swope on splits. Not much happened except I got to meet his friend J. He has worked with Bro Swope at the hospital for the last 10 years. Bro Emmert also works with them. (That's how Bro Swope first came in contact with the church. He met Bro Emmert when he started working at the hospital and Bro Emmert was able to bring him into the church.) Since Bro Swope became a member he's been working hard on J. J knows a lot about the church and knows several members. I feel like he's getting closer to accepting visits from us.

Bro Swope and I went to visit him Tuesday night to check out some things he needed help with in his back yard. J broke his collar bone earlier this year so he's unable to do anything too strenuous. We figured we would come back the next day with the other missionaries and help him out. He has potential to be one of the best member referrals possible. He works with 2 of the strongest members in the ward and is good friends with them. He already knows a lot about the church. He's a nice guy. And to top it off he lives just behind the church. It's a 5 min. walk from his house. I had no idea this guy existed until now.

-Wednesday-
We met with G and reviewed L1 with him. Still not sure why he has difficulties understanding why there's one true church.

Later we changed into service clothes, picked up the "Belders", and went to J's house to help him with his yard. Bro Swope was there too. We shoveled some old rocks out of his garden and put red lava rocks in their place. It didn't take long with all of us helping. J was extremely grateful for that because he's unable to do things like that himself.

We finished the night with dinner at the Fickers. They made 1 lb. steaks. Bro Ficker likes his steaks well done but they were so big they wound up being medium. It's been a long time since I've had a medium stake. The Fickers have 3 young boys. They're crazy. Bro Ficker served his mission in Utah.

-Thursday-
We did service for the Quints by washing a couple of their cars. Bro Quint has his own business where he fixes up cars and sells them again. Later we tried some people. Not much happened until we went with the "Belders" to the Swope's for dinner. We also watched "Meet the Mormons" and burned Elder Gough's suit in celebration for the end of his mission.

-Friday-
In the morning we went to the newly opened Krispy Kreme to get doughnuts for our drive to Evansville for zone meeting. At zone meeting, the Zone Leaders gave trainings on personal study, companion study, and nightly planning. They felt like Elder Lynch's trainings. Those were his favorite subjects to train on, especially nightly planning.

After zone meeting we weekly planned. We didn't have much time to work at the end of the day so we just talked to a few people on the streets.

-Saturday-
Started off with lunch at Olive Garden. J wanted to treat us to lunch for helping him with his yard. After lunch we helped the Capeners briefly move a couple of their friends in their new homes. There's 2 more member referral possibilities.

Later in the day we biked around downtown and talked to a lot of people. Owensboro's Comic-Con was going on so there were plenty of nerds out. We finished the night at Bro Emmert's for dinner. We picked up a couple of his mountain bikes because we're mountain biking on Monday at Rudy Mine's trails at Ben Haws Park for Elder Gough's last P-Day. Apparently it's this world-renowned mountain bike trail that was designed by professional bikers. It's free too.

-Sunday-
It was a normal Sunday for the most part. We went to church, ate lunch, and studied afterwards. We saw Cam and El for the first time in a while. We had a simple BoM lesson. They liked it. We're trying to build their desire to read.

We finished the night with dinner at the Fedor's. They had spaghetti, salad, watermelon, and brownies.

-> Small Plates <-

There wasn't as much I learned this week that I would like to share in this email but I did have this cool thought this week. God's tests are not pass or fail tests. They show us what were good at and teach us what we need to improve. Some tests or trials come because of disobedience, other come because our Father sees we're ready to grow more. Whatever the reason, they all have the same purpose. That is to help us progress, to help us learn, to teach us to be like His Son, and to let us know it is by His mercy that we are redeemed.

-> Closing Remarks <-

Well, that was the week. Lately we've been struggling to teach lessons. We used to have a lot of investigators we could meet with but they have all disappeared for one reason or another. But, because we endured, we now have 3 member referral possibilities to work with. J and both the Capener's friends. J is in an especially good position to be an investigator. Hopefully we'll be able to teach him and the Capener's friends.

Thanks for all the help. I love all of you!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Evansville District

Elder Cox, Gough, Bro Swope, Gardenier, Salazar

So... I was going to go mountain biking...

But... this happened and I had to get stitched up at Urgent Care.

After getting stitched up.

Bike & Car Probs

June 6, 2016

Dear Family,

Bike Probs and Car Probs

As the title suggests I had some bike problems this week. I found out I had glass in my tire. It caused 2 tubes to go flat in 1 day. I got it fixed now thankfully. The guys at Big O Bike Shop are amazing. We also had some dealings with our car but it wasn't as bad as the bike. Anyway, here's the week...

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-
We went to Evansville to play volleyball with other missionaries that were up there. There's a lot of missionaries in and close around Evansville and every P-Day they all get together for sports in the gym. This week we decided to join them. We usually can't go because that's too many miles for our car but we had extra miles this time so we went. It was fun. I enjoy volleyball. I enjoy it a lot more than basketball. Jes showed up to play too. He had a fun time.

When the fun was over it was time to head back and start working. The first thing we did was go to dinner with Sis Pepper and her brother who's the McCoy I mentioned last week. They fed us a good simple meal. Meat loaf, corn, mashed potatoes, green beans, and bread. It was all good. Sis Pepper's brother, who I will just call Bro McCoy is not a member but he loves seeing young guys like us doing the Lord's work. He really appreciates us. Last week when we helped him with the couches he said we were "brought up right."

Later that night we visited a couple LA's. They were siblings to an active member here in the ward. This was actually the first time we were able to get in with them. They run a landscaping business but since this was Memorial Day, they were off. They're Hispanic so Elder Salazar was the one that did all the talking.

-Tuesday-
We had interviews with President Brough. It went well. The senior couple in our district provided Moonlite for lunch afterwards! I was very happy :).

Right after interviews, Ms Sh texted us and asked if we could move her baptism back a week because she works on the 11th. We asked her what her hours were but she never responded. Throughout her investigation, she's had several baptismal dates and several baptismal interviews but she's never been able to make it for one reason or another. We took her text and lack of answering to be a very bad sign that something was wrong. We were also supposed to meet with Jes after interviews but he cancelled because he had to work. We still need to teach him most of the lessons and with how little time we have to do that it's very unlikely he'll make it to the 11th.

Speaking of Jes, I talked to President Brough about him missing church this week and he said he's still good to be baptized on the 11th. Normally he wouldn't, but President Brough knows them and knows Jes tried to make it to church. He missed this week because something in his apartment's electrical work caused the lights to spark and almost set on fire. He had to stay and deal with that. If that hadn't happened he would have made it to church.

Later on we had to take the car to the body shop to get a bunch of estimates on all the damage from me and previous missionaries. In order to fix everything that's damaged on the car, it would cost almost $8000. There's a lot of damage on our car. Most of its from previous missionaries.

We finished the day at splits helping Sis Reynolds move. Yay- more moving! It didn't take too long. She didn't have much stuff and we had a lot of guys this time. Yay- moving!

-Wednesday-
Since I'll be going to the bike area for an exchange this week, I thought it would be good to finally get my bike fixed. So I went to Big O Bike Shop and bought a couple tubes to replace the one that I popped a few weeks ago. After I got the tubes, I replaced the broken one, pumped the tire up, and it looked good. Then we left to work for the day.

We saw the old Tin's. We asked them how they liked church. They enjoyed it okay. It was the first time they went in years. They only went because their friends, the Craig's, were giving their farewell talks. I don't think we'll be able to reactivate them. They've lost too much of their testimony and knowledge of the BoM and the church. They young Tin's are still doing good. Bro Tin is still one of the nicest guys ever and his family is great too. They're still investigating. 

Later we had Missionary Coordination at the church. It's so nice to have support from the members. Afterwards we visited the Quintana's and they fed us ham sammiches and scrambled eggs with habanero sauce in them. I couldn't eat them. They hurt my mouth too much. I took 2 bites and I was done.

When we got home at the end of the day I realized my bike tire had gone flat again. I pumped it up but there was a hole in it. All my bike did all day was sit in the apartment. So I took that tube out. I opened the other one and pumped it up by itself to make sure there were no holes in it before I put it in the tire. It was good. No holes. I put it in, pumped it up, and there was a hole. I realized there had to have been some shards of glass in the tire that was popping my tubes. So I took it all apart again to find the glass but I couldn't. I looked everywhere but I didn't find it.

-Thursday-
I went to the bike area on exchange with Elder Gardenier. I had to use one of their bikes because mine was still out. For the first part of the day we helped Sis Reynolds with more moving. We were the only ones there this time. She bought us Papa Johns afterwards. Nothing much happened for the rest of the day. We biked around a lot and talked to a lot of people. We saw Sis Lindsey and read 4 Nephi with her. At the end of the day we got drinks and sat down. We were done.

-Friday-
Elder Gardenier and I biked around for the first part of the day. Did the same as yesterday. Talked to a lot of people. We exchanged back and talked about the exchange with the other guys. We found out Ms Sh is still good for the 11th thankfully. Well just have to do it at about 6 PM. We're still unsure about Jes. He's cancelled his appointments this week because of work and he doesn't answer his phone most of the time now.

After all that I took my bike to Big O Bike Shop to have it fixed. They took it apart more than I did but couldn't find the glass. They could tell by the holes it was glass and not some sort of installation error. After almost an hour they put it back together with a new tube in it, pumped it up, and it stayed pumped this time. The glass must have fallen out somewhere. They didn't charge me for the new tube.

Afterwards we were walking around in a neighborhood and we met this nice old lady named Lil. She invited us to sit down on her porch and talk with her for a while. She talked a lot about her flowers. She loves flowers. We sat there and talked about flowers and Jesus for about an hour. It was a nice break in the middle of the day. 

We finished the night at Victor & Maku's. Victor showed us his back shed where he keeps a lot of merchandise he sells on his website. He does a lot more than make graduation scarfs. He imports stuff from Africa and sells it in the US. He sells a lot of cool stuff: wood carvings, shirts, swords, masks, hats, bags, and other things. It's all 100% authentic African stuff because it's all imported straight from there.

-Saturday-
I don't have a whole lot to say about Saturday. It was all Spanish work. We saw the Gomez's. We saw Galo, and we saw the Quinta brothers, the guys we couldn't contact until Memorial Day. We finished the night at Bro Emmert's. He made BLT's and fries.

-Sunday-
The Craig's gave their last testimony in Fast and Testimony meeting. After church we went to the Fuqua's farm for lunch. Usually we have lunch at their house but for some reason they wanted to have it at the farm. While they were cooking, Elder Salazar was fishing and I got beat by a 10 year old in Sorry! They made hot dogs and burgers. They had a lot of chips to go with it. They also had corn on the cob.

Later that night we visited Bro Shelby. He's a recent convert. Usually we don't visit him because he's in the bike area but he wanted us to stop by, so we did. We played some card games and watched the new children's narrations of Bible videos the church made.

We finally got back in contact with Jes. We found out he's got jobs in Evansville and Owensboro. He went to church in Evansville this week. With how much he's working now, and with how little time we have, and with how much we still have to teach him it's very very unlikely he'll make it to the 11th. It's almost impossible.

-> Small Plates <-

In 1 Nephi 16 we read about Lehi's family's first experiences with the Liahona. In this chapter everyone's hunting tools break and it becomes hard to obtain food. This made everyone a little mad. In verse 18 we learn about the purpose of these trials. The Lord used these trials to teach Lehi and his family how the Liahona works. These trials gave them something to contrast with. They understood what it was like when the Liahona didn't work and they understood what it was like when it did work.
The Lord is still doing the same things today. Our trials are meant to train us to follow the "Liahona".  

In verse 29 we read the Liahona worked by faith AND diligence. Almost every time I heard about the Liahona before I've just heard it works by faith. It actually requires faith and diligence. Go ahead and give that some pondering :).

1 Nephi 17 contains another key scripture that defines why Laman and Lemuel are so screwed up. It's verse 45. Here Nephi says they were "past feeling" that they couldn't feel the word of God. I thought the wording "feel the word of God" was interesting. That implies you need the Spirit to work on you in order for you to gain a testimony. You can't just read the word of God. You have to "feel" it too. But if you're past feeling, you're going to have a bad time.

What's wrong with Laman and Lemuel? See 1 Nephi 17:45 Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder.

Well, that was this week and some of my favorite notes from what I learned this week. Thank you all so much! Thanks for the flings. I'll probably get them today. Bye! :)

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

The end of a day,

P-day in Evansville

Wall art

15 Hours of Service

May 30, 2016

Dear Family,

15 Hours of Service Later...

We did a lot of service this week. I added up all the time we spent and it was about 15 hours. Maybe 16. A lot of people wanted our help with stuff this week. We helped move 2 families, cleaned an apartment, moved some couches, mowed a yard, and helped clean the church. I don't know how I'm not extremely sore right now.

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-
Brother Pursley came out frolfing with us. He's really good at it. Elder Gardenier threw his disc into the creek. He, Elder Salazar and Elder Gough had quite the adventure getting it back. I wish I would have recorded it. It landed on the other side so they had to cross to get it. On the way to it they had to walk through a field of stinging nettle. They all had shorts on. When they got to the disc the side of the creek was so muddy Elder Salazar fell in. The water was to his neck.

We went shopping at the new Meijer that opened this week. It was pretty nice. Everything has huge discounts on it for opening week. I got myself a nice water bottle. Later on we saw Victor and Maku, the couple I gave Tessa's BoM to. They're still the nicest people ever. We read a few scriptures with them and had a good conversation about Jesus and other characters in church history like Moroni and Joseph Smith. They're actually interested. They said they're going to have us over for African food sometime. That'll be fun because I've never had African food.

-Tuesday-
We started off Tuesday with moving these 2 expensive, heavy couches out of  the In's house and into Sis Pepper's brother's house. Sis Pepper's brother is a McCoy. The McCoy family that had that huge war with the Hatfield family forever ago. He's not a member. He really appreciated the help. We moved the couches in a truck, drove to his house, and unloaded them. He also had us move some old couches out of his house. The whole process took about 1.5 hours.

When we started working we taught Ms Eli a full L1. We're not sure how well she understood our claim to be the one true church. She still loves having us come over and teach her. She loves anything to do with God.

We had a fantastic splits. Bro Swope came out with us. We saw Ms SS and her father. They moved in from another ward a few weeks ago. Her father was baptized a couple years ago. He used to teach gospel principles. We had a good conversation with him. He never met his father. He always had a close relationship with God and considered Him his Father. There was a scripture he really liked about God being our Father but he wasn't sure where it was. He quoted it to me and thanks to my iPad I was able to find it. It was Matthew 3:9.

Later we visited the Tins family with Bro Swope. They fed us dinner with Pizza Hut and a lot of soda. We had a good time there. Bro Tins loves hearing testimonies so he had Bro Swope bear his. It was a good way to start off the lesson. We taught a full L1 and they enjoyed it for the most part. The adults were fully interest but the kids weren't as much. They said they're going to come to church this week because it's the Craig's farewell. The Tins are one of the nicest families I've met on my mission. There are several people we're working with right now that are extremely nice. That makes the work a lot easier.

-Wednesday-
Not a whole lot happened the first half of the day. Just the usual checking on people and walking the streets. Later on we went to the Swope's and taught Ms Swope and her son L2. They liked it. He seemed to understand it. That's always a difficult lesson to explain simply. Even when you can explain it simply, it's a long lesson. They're both looking good for June 11. They gave us this interesting Dragon Fruit drink. It was pretty good.

We finished the day with English class. It had been a while since we last saw our English students.

-Thursday-
We started off moving the Anderson's out of their duplex. That took about 2 or 3 hours. It was just the 4 of us and the Andersons. They bought us Pizza Hut afterwards. Right after that we helped Ms Des move furniture around and clean the place up. I think that took 1.5 hours.

Later we saw Kie. We taught him the first part of L1. We're concerned he's just having us over for fun instead of learning the gospel.

Later that day we did yard service for the Swopes. We mowed and weed whacked for the most part. At some point during the service we got into a tick patch because I found 20+ ticks on my clothes and in my shoes before dinner. According to Bro Swope they were the "bad ones". I didn't know there were kinds of ticks that were worse than others. I thought they all sucked.

They fed us lasagna. It was fantastic. They also had the Shaws over for dinner. They're an older couple in the ward. They're also some of the nicest people ever. They're both converts. They drove us back after dinner and told us about some of their favorite memories in the church.

We finished the day at Walmart buying air fresheners and tick poison. We bathed our clothing in poison several times. Elder Salazar found a tick on his knee and one on his back. I didn't find any on me. Hopefully we got them all.

-Friday-
We went to district meeting. Elder Gough gave a great training on self-mastery and integrity. Later we had lunch at Dee's Diner. Elder Peck, one of the ZL's, actually finished all the pancakes. He didn't look very good afterwards. On the way back to the Belder's apartment I scraped the two right doors on this log that was low to the ground. I was rounding a corner and didn't see the log. It put a nice dent along the two doors. I don't know how I spent 3 years driving before my mission without any sort of accident and now as a missionary I've been rear ended, locked the keys in the car, and dented up 2 doors. What changed?

It's actually a good thing this happened because the car has a lot of other damage from previous missionaries that hasn't been fixed yet so this'll present a good opportunity to have all of that fixed.

Later we helped Bro Swope clean the church. More service! After that we ate dinner at the Gomez's. We finished TWEing on 2nd Street. In May there's something in Owensboro called "Friday After 5". All long 2nd Street and Smothers Park there are bands playing, people selling food, and other booths with stuff. It's basically a downtown party every Friday. There were a ton a people there this time. It was absolutely packed. There were almost as many as there was at the BBQ festival. It was a fun time.

-Saturday-
We started off Saturday with 7 hours of service. We helped the In's move completely out of their house. They had a lot of heavy stuff. We used their riding mower to drag stuff from their basement to the trucks. The funniest part was pushing their piano from their basement. The In's provided breakfast with McDonalds and lunch with Pizza Hut. That's everyone's pizza of choice this week. Once we finished with the house we unloaded some stuff in their storage unit. That was another hour by itself.

Once we were done with everything we went and bought drinks. We took showers and began working again. Not much happened for the rest of the evening. As we were walking in a neighborhood we saw a kid riding a rip stick. He started talking with us. I mentioned I used to ride those and he wanted me to ride his. I tried for about a minute. It felt weird. I could still do it though. The kid asked if it had been 8 years since I rode one last. I thought about it and realized it had been about 8 years since I last rode one.

Later on we ran into a Native American on the streets. He taught us about several beliefs and traditions they have. It was fun to learn more about the Lamanite apostasy. He was a nice guy. He was fun to talk to. As we were talking with him I had the thought that he had Nephi and Alma in his ancestry. 

We finished the day at Walmart buying ice cream because we decided after a day like the one we had, we deserved ice cream. God did too, because we happened to run into some members who gave us the money for ice cream. It was great!

-Sunday-
We went to church. There were a lot of people there because it was the Craig's farewell. The Tin's were there. It was good to see them. Jes wasn't because Satan caused his apartment lights to light on fire so he had to deal with that. In order for him to be baptized on June 11th now, I'd have to get special permission. We can't push it back because that's Ms Swope's day. She's been pushed back enough. Either I get special permission or they'll be baptized separately.

We finished the night eating at the Fedor's. They had pulled pork sammiches again. :)

-> Small Plates <-

A long time ago towards the beginning of my mission someone said the Angel in 1 Nephi 11-14 uses a very specific pattern with showing Nephi the vision. I never really figured it out back then so I forgot about it. I remembered it this week when I actually did figure out the pattern.

It's in these verses. 1 Nephi 11:8, 12, 19, 24, 26, 30, 31, 32. 12:1,
11. 13:1. 14:9, 18.

In all of these verses the Angel says "Look" before showing Nephi more of the vision. Nephi was never directly shown the vision. He always had to "look" to see more. He always had his agency too. He could have chosen to look where the Angel said to look or not look and be content with what he saw so far.

I thought of a couple ways this applies to us. For us to endure to the end, we have to "look" where the Angel (Holy Ghost) tells us to look. We can't be content with part of the gospel. We have to constantly be "looking" into it. We have to see more.

The phrase "look" also suggest that we need to put forth effort in order to "see more of the vision". Looking is so simple and basic. But observe what it did for Nephi, or the Israelites when Moses held up the serpent. If we will just spend a little effort and "look" it will make an eternity of difference.

Another way I thought this would apply to us is in missionary work. Whenever we teach and commit people the gospel we are,in effect, acting as the Angel and saying "look". If our investigators would just look, and not cast it out by their unbelief, they would gain a witness. It's always fascinated me how easy the gospel is but how hard people are to understand it.

Nephi "looked" every chance he got.

Here's more stuff I got out of 1 Nephi 14. The chapter has a very heavy theme of God triumphing over evil. As I pondered this, this thought process occurred.

In this life we feel as if there's more working against us than for us. Really there's 2 dominant forces in the universe. Good and evil. God and Satan. Satan's influences can seem more powerful than they are because they tend to be a lot louder than the influences of the Holy Ghost. Also, it's human nature to notice the bad more than the good.

In all trials where we feel hopeless and abandoned, we need to remember that we always have Christ working for us. Even if Satan's influences are more prevalent in our lives, Christ has already triumphed over all. He's already won. It's over. All that's left is to watch everything play out.

Elder Holland had a good quote about this. He said something to the effect of the game is already won, but we're still running around trying to figure out what jersey we're wearing.

Well, that was about everything from this week. Thanks for everything! Love all of you!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Dee's Diner

Couldn't eat the last 2 pieces of french toast