Serving in Kentucky: 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)