Knives!

Sept 26, 2016

Dear Family,

-Monday-

Normal P-Day as per usual. We shopped and emailed. Elder Salazar's bike broke down and I tried to fix it but we learned he's going to have to replace some parts. My hands got black from all the grease that got on them. I got a box from home! I always love getting boxes from home! 

-Tuesday-

Tuesday's plans looked great. We had some service for a member and another meal appointment with Mr V in a member's home. Unfortunately... that all fell through. No service and no meal. We basically spent the whole day biking and talking with people. We tried one referral we got who lives in the top corner of our area. It took an hour to bike from the church to this referral. He didn't answer. It took another hour to bike back :). 

We learned the Indian Trails Elders contacted PJ in their area. You may remember PJ was an investigator we had about a month ago who we lost contact with. Apparently he still wants to meet with us. He's been reading the Book of Mormon in our absence. We dropped him because he wouldn't answer his door or his phone. Maybe we'll be able to pick him back up.

-Wednesday-

Service day. We went to ReStore and sorted doors all day long. For some reason people keep donating doors to them. They have more doors than they can sell. Usually whenever we go there, we deal with a lot of doors. 

Later on in the day we went to the Methodist church and helped out there. Nothing unique happened this time. It's always good to help out at other churches. As we serve, we make friends and people see we're not weird :). 

At the end of the day, the ReStore group took us out to Rafferty's. I got a medium rare T-Bone that had this sauce made from Pineapple Juice and Soy Sauce. It was really good but nobody can do medium rare like Carrabbas. 

-Thursday-

District Meeting. Elder Williams and I forgot we were giving a short training for the meeting until the morning of. I felt like Brian Regan when he said "Oh no! That's due today!". With the little prep we put into the training it went surprisingly well. 

After the meeting we went on an exchange with the Indian Trails Elders. I took Elder Robins to Hurstbourne. For the most part, we spent the day talking with peeps. We had a member meal with the Jansson family. They fed us breakfast for dinner. That's always the best dinner! 

Later on we were biking around and this huge dog decided to chase us. It wasn't trying to hurt us. It was just having fun running next to us. However, it decided to try and dart between me and Elder Robins. He wound up running over its food. And it still followed us for a while after that. I'd say it followed us for a good quarter of a mile or so. 

-Friday-

Elder Robins and I started off teaching Mr Ch about the enabling power of the Atonement. It was a good lesson. We used Alma 7:11-13 to explain everything and we had a good conversation from it. Mr Ch actually committed himself to pray more without us bringing up prayer. Hopefully he continues to act. 

After we left, we got doughnuts at the Krispy Kreme that's next to our apartment. Eventually, the other elders came and we exchanged back. 

Later on we visited the Cl family. They told us they're moving to our apartment complex. That'll make it a lot easier to see them :). After we got out of the Cl's, my back tire lost it's air. After some examination I realized that the valve itself had broken. Thankfully, I had a spare tube in my bag so I was able to fix it without walking great distances anywhere. Unfortunately, right after I got everything back together and started biking away, my front tube went flat. The same thing happened to it. The valve broke. I didn't have a spare tube for that one :(. We had to walk to Walmart to get it. We walked to Walmart, got my tube, walked back, fixed my bike, and died. 

-Saturday-

Saturday was crazy. We had missionary coordination with Bro Haws. Then we helped Bro Brock with some yard service. He had us rip out a bunch of plants in his front yard and put black mulch in their place. Bro Brock gives knives to missionaries who help him out with yard work. He gave me 2 big knives :). 

After the service, the Brock's took us to Skyline Chili for lunch. Then we had to attend a surprise baptism. Bro Klienman in the ward was baptizing his daughter and wanted us to be there. So after lunch we quickly changed and attended the baptism. 

-Sunday-

Mr V didn't come to church this week. He attended some French-speaking church. Hopefully he noticed the lack of Spirit at this other church. Later on after church, we went to the Dodd's for dinner. They fed us an Alfredo dish that had bacon in it. It was heavenly. They took the "Brother of Jared Challenge" very well. 

Later on as we were biking around some guy stopped us in his car to warn us. He said a friend of his just got hurt riding his bike recently. He broke quite a few bones in his accident. This random stranger also said he was a talent scout and said some of the best marketers he's met are RM's. He asked us about our people skills. 

- Small Plate's -

Mr Ch lesson was a very unique one. The lesson subject was the "Enabling Power of the Atonement". There's 2 main effects that we get out of the Atonement. the cleansing/redeeming power, and the enabling power. We don't often hear about the enabling power and I have never taught a lesson where that was the main subject. Because it was a new subject for me, I chose the verses of scripture that teach the Atonement the best. 

Alma 7:11-13  "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me."  

These few verses teach us about both effects of the Atonement simply and powerfully. My favorite part that talks about the enabling power is the last part of verse 12. "...that He may know according to the flesh how to succor His people according to their infirmities." Succor means help or support. Part of Christ's purpose is to HELP us do what He has commanded us to do. 

1 Nephi 3:7 illustrates this: "...I, Nephi, said... I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, SAVE HE SHALL PREPARE A WAY FOR THEM that they may accomplish the thing which He commandeth them". 

Through Christ's Atonement. We are cleansed from sin, redeemed from both deaths, and receive strength to enable us to do what He commands. I enjoyed teaching this short lesson to Mr Ch this week. I feel like it taught me more about the Atonement that it taught him. 

Love Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Krispy Kreme is right next to our apt.

What we look like after hours of biking.

Exchange with Elder Robins (I'm Elder Batman!)

Bikes

Big knives from Bro Brock!

Great Burgers & More Family Connections

Sept 19, 2016

Dear Family,

This was a fun week. I'd say there were some good highlights of the week. Check out the week below... :)

-Monday-

Normal P-Day. The Barringtons had us over for dinner. They had fantastic Hawaiian Haystacks. 

-Tuesday-

Brother Brock took us out to see Brother Strauser again. We had a nice lesson about not letting Satan influence us. Brother Stauser was feeling the Spirit pretty strongly. 

After the visit, Brother Brock to us to a burger place called WW Cousins. Before we walked in, Brother Brock asked if we had heard of Fudruckers. I said yes and Brother Brock said this WW Cousins place was very similar to Fudruckers. I got a half pound burger and it was fantastic! Easily one of the best burgers I've had on my mission. It tasted exactly like the Fudruckers burgers. It was so good! 

Later on, the Sisters called and asked us to give a blessing to one of their investigators again. We went over, blessed them and their home, and they had extremely positive feelings about it. They said they felt like a burden was literally lifted off their backs. Yay Priesthood!

-Wednesday-

Service day. We went to ReStore. Afterwards we had lunch with the Spanish Elders (now Salazar and Hancock) at Steak n' Shake. I bought a double bacon cheeseburger :). It was worth it. :)

Later on we went to the Methodist Church. They were serving all parts of chicken this time. We sat with a nice man who greatly appreciated the company. 

We finished the night off by going on an adventure bike ride way to the top of our area to try a referral. It actually took an hour to bike up to this guy's house. And of course he didn't answer. :(

-Thursday-

We had Zone Conference at the Hurstbourne building. That allowed us to bike there :). President Brough gave a good training about building faith. The Zone Leaders gave an awkward training on the new planning guidelines. I feel like they're trying to over-complicate them. I'm still not sure what they're trying to get at with them. Oh well :). 

At Zone Conference, it's customary to have the missionaries who are leaving soon give their testimonies at the end of the conference. One of the missionaries who bore their testimony this time was Elder S. Elder G was companions with him and had a hard time with him. My impression of Elder S was generally negative from Elder G. However, I sat next to and talked with Elder S during lunch and my opinion completely changed. He's actually a great guy. Then he surprised everyone by giving the best testimony out of everyone else who bore their testimonies. He has character flaws like everyone else, but he's still a great guy. 

Later on in the day we had dinner with the Brown family. They're converts of about 5 years. They fed us Shrimp Pasta and it was fantastic. On the way to the Browns we got to bike through a street that was preparing for a parade. That means there were hundreds of people lined along the street in anticipation of the parade. And all of them saw us as we passed through on the way to the Browns. :)

-Friday-

We deep cleaned our apartment. We made it cleaner than it ever has been. Then we had a short Weekly Planning session. After the planning I adjusted Elder Williams bike. I learned how to adjust bike derailers this week. I fixed mine and Elder Williams. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.

I used some chain lube to make his bike silent. His bike was so noisy, it became the way I would keep track of where he was whenever he was behind me. Now it's silent and I can't tell where he is :). 

-Saturday-

Started out with Missionary Coordination with Brother Haws and the Sisters. Then we went on a 2.5 hour adventure to the top of the area. I've been wanting to go up there and work for a while but after spending some time there I understand why we don't go there often. First, it's forever out of the way from anything and second, it's the hardest part of our area to bike. There are so many hills everywhere. You're always biking up and down steep hills there. This was the first time I had to use the low gears on my bike because I couldn't take the hills with the medium gears. In all of our adventuring, not much happened. We tried a lot of LA's. 2 of them answered and basically said they're not interested anymore. I was amazed to see me legs were able to handle all the hills we biked without getting fatigued. 

Later one, Brother Bowen called us and requested our help moving an 800 lb. gun safe to his basement. He picked us up and drove us to his house. It was just him, his wife, and the 2 of us to move this thing. I'm not sure how we got it down without hurting anyone but we did. We succeeded. It was fun... slightly... In appreciation, Sister Bowen gave us dinner.

On the drive back I learned Brother Bowen has family connections to Kingsland, Georgia, where Grandma and Grandpa Cox lived. He said his grandmother lived down there and he went to church in the ward there a few times when he was young. Brother Bowen called his mom, talked with her a bit, and confirmed that Brother Bowen's grandmother was great friends with Grandma Cox and that Brother Bowen likely met dad as they're almost the same age. This was a highlight of the week to find this out.

We finished out Saturday by teaching Mr C. We showed him the first 4 addiction recovery videos and he enjoyed them. He said he wants to attend the ARP classes now. Hopefully this'll be a way we can get him to more fully commit.  

-Sunday-

Church was good. Mr V and his family came. We taught him and his wife for 3rd hour again. This time without Brother Haws. We finished teaching them the Plan of Salvation and they seemed to understand and appreciate it. The lesson went a lot better than we thought it was going to be without the only French speaker in the ward. 

The rest of the Sunday was spent trying peeps like normal. 

I don't really have a spiritual thought for this week :(. Read you're scriptures. You'll get some great spiritual thoughts out of those :). 

Love Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

Watching Basketball... too tired to play

Blessings

Sept 12, 2016

Dear Family,

This week was great. We saw a lot of blessings this week. The members were supportive, the investigator lessons were great, it was a fun week. Mr V and his family are our most solid investigators right now. The ward loves them. 

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

I decided to try something new this week. I tried living off of nothing but fruits, veggies, and chocolate milk. It went well but I learned how much I love bread. I need bread. 

Later on we had a fantastic member-present lesson with Mr V. He moved into the ward last week. He met with missionaries before he moved and the ward here helped him move in. His native language is French. English is his 2nd language. He speaks it well enough to communicate but not well enough to understand gospel topics. So we had our ward mission leader, Brother Haws who served his mission in France, come and help with the lesson. It went fantastically. It was mostly Mr V and Brother Haws talking with each other in French. He loved the conversation and wants to come to church again.

We finished the night at the McKinney's. They fed us watermelon, and ribs. It was a good meal. They're nice members.

-Tuesday-

We started off teaching Char. We showed him the Refiner's Fire video and discussed trials. He isn't willing to make a full commitment to come back to church. He's not even willing to read the BoM daily. We're probably going to visit him sparingly from now on. 

We talked with a sweet Christian tattoo artist near his home :)

We met an interesting... probably drunk/high lady. She came up to us and asked us for a BoM. At first we were like "Sweet! Someone asked us for a BoM". She took the BoM but then proceeded to educate us on how we're going to receive white horses when Christ comes. Something to do with some verse in Revelations she probably misunderstood. 

Later on we had to take a long uphill road to the top of our area. Surprisingly I was able to do it without much effort. My legs have become much stronger here.

-Wednesday-

Service day. We went to Re-Store and helped out there again. We had 3 appointments between that and the Methodist church but they all fell through. So we went to the Methodist church and served there. They had clam chowder this time :). 

-Thursday-

District Meeting. Elder Patten gave a great training on self-confidence and having confidence in the Lord. It was what we needed at the time. 

We contacted this group of happy guys outside of a liquor store and they opened up and basically had a party with us on the spot. They started reaching out to everyone else in the parking lot, asking them if they wanted to be Mormon. It was funny :). 

-Friday-

This was a busy day! We started early by seeing a LA with Brother Brock. Then Brother Brock took us out to lunch at a place called Skyline Chili. They specialize in the whole spaghetti in chili thing that's super popular in KY for some reason. 

Next we helped Sister Fiet set up for a giant Relief Society thing. We filled the gym with tables and chairs. After that we hauled down to Mr V's for another member-present lesson with Brother Haws. It was another great lesson. He doesn't want to be baptized yet but he still wants to look into the church. He's grateful for all the help the ward's given him with moving in. 

After Mr V, we HAULED up to Panda Express for dinner with the Hopkinsons. We gave them the "Brother of Jared Challenge" in Panda Express. It was interesting teaching a lesson in a food place. 

-Saturday-

We went to the church to help take down the Relief Society thing we set up. Before we took everything down they fed us lunch. It was a little weird being one of the only guys there. Most everyone else was Relief Society. 

As we were biking home we saw this nasty black storm heading towards us. We got inside our home a minute before it hit us. This was the worst storm I've had here in Hurstbourne so far. It kept us in for almost 2 hours. 

When we finally got out we taught CL again. This time we laid out all of the requirements for baptism. Reading, church attendance, Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, etc. He reacted positively to all of them. He said he wants to improve his life and is willing to make the necessary changes to come closer to God. It was a great lesson as well. 

-Sunday-

We had a super busy day at church. Mr V and his family came again, the sisters had an investigator family come too, and there were a few other non-members that showed up. There was a lot of managing where all the non-members were supposed to go. It was good but it was crazy. 

For 3rd hour we pulled Mr V and his wife aside with Brother Haws and taught them the first half of L2. We didn't want to split them up for 3rd hour because his wife doesn't speak much English at all. We had a great lesson with them. It was interesting teaching a lesson for the 3rd hour of church. They loved the pre-earth life part of it. They said they've never heard that before. 

After church a member invited Mr V and his family to their house for dinner. I've never seen members fellowship investigators like that. It's good the ward is reacting positively to the ward members. I'm sure they'll resolve their baptismal concerns and join soon. 

After church we went to the Frey's house for dinner. Brother Frey served with the Orem fire department and did a lot of things with PG's fire department. For dinner they had a slow-cooked beef, mashed potatoes, and rolls. It was very similar to Sunday meals that mom makes. For dessert they had these amazing pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. I ate half the plate :). 

I finished the night by watching a Mormon Tabernacle Tribute to 9/11. It was a great tribute. 

-> Small Plates <-

I don't have anything special this week for a message. So I'll repeat something I wrote last week. This has become one of my favorite quotes. It might even be my absolute favorite quote. 

"You have not failed until you quit trying" - Gordon B. Hinkley

This is so true. They only true failure is when you quit. We have a lot of trials in our lives. Our purpose here is to learn and grow from them. To try again. We're not meant to give up in this life. We're meant to succeed. 

Love Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

Elder Cox is now a "Belder" (Bike Elder)

Crazy Trips and Great Food

September 4, 2016

Dear Family,

This was a fun week. It had some amazing meals in it. There were a few unexpected things in it as well. Enjoy! 

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

Normal P-Day for the most part. We emailed a lot. We went to the Jones for dinner. They had bacon burgers. We couldn't stay long because Bro Edwards needed to pick us up to give a friend of his a blessing. His friend isn't a member. We were supposed to bless him last week but we wound up not being able to. We were finally able to this time. 

Bro Edwards neglected to tell us Daniel lived in Shelbyville... which is way out of our area. We didn't know we were going to Shelbyville until we were on the drive there. So when we got to his house, we spoke for a bit. Got to know him and explain how blessings worked. We blessed him, his wife, and his home. He's been going through some hard things lately and Bro Edwards has been trying to get him to accept a blessing. He finally did and allowed us to come over. It was a good experience. They were definitely feeling the Spirit. Bro Edwards also taught them a bit of the Restoration and bore his testimony about it. They accepted the invitation to have the Shelbyville Elders come over and teach them. 

It was a crazy night. We were not expecting to be driven all the way out to Shelbyville. 

-Tuesday-

In the morning we helped Sis Fiet sort some Relief Society donations. Later on the Zone Leaders came down to blitz us. That's where 2 companionships work an area at the same time. They told us last week they were coming so it wasn't a surprise. It was just annoying because planning for blitz's is difficult. You basically have to plan out 2 days worth of activities for 1 day.

Anyway, they came over in the evening. We started off with a trip to Panda Express. We were hungry and they were hungry. When dinner was over I went out with Elder Haws and Elder Williams went out with Elder Rasmussen. The same Rasmussen that was in English, IN when I was in Corydon forever ago. All Elder Haws and I did was talk with people on the street. We tried a few people but no one answered.

At the end of the day the ZL's stayed over to "observe our planning". When the Church gave us Fb, they also released these new planning guidelines to go with it. The new guidelines are extremely people-focused and to the point. They help you define exactly what specific steps that your specific investigators need to take in order to progress. 

The huge people emphasis is the biggest strength but at the same time the biggest weakness with the new guidelines. If you don't have any investigators to work with then the new guidelines will do little for you. They talk about people, not about finding. 

So in our planning session that night we talked about the few people we knew well enough to plan for and spent the rest of the time deciding on potentials and LA's we we going to try because that was the only thing we could do and the ZL's somewhat criticized us for it. I'm still not sure what they were trying to get at. They said it was a good planning session but said we could have done better. But they didn't say how we we could have done better. So... Yeah... It was a weird night. They slept over. 

-Wednesday-

Another service day. We went to Re-Store and moved around a ton of heavy TV stands. Later on we went to the Methodist Church and helped them serve food. After that, we met the Spanish Elders at Penn Station to finish the night. They have a monthly tradition to eat out with us and they let me pick the place. I chose Penn Station because I've never been there before. It was actually good. It was like Subway but better. 

-Thursday-

We had district meeting. Elder Patten gave a great training on TWE's, worthiness, prayer, and goals which are President Brough's 4 favorite things. After the meeting we all had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. Everyone wanted to go to Mellow Mushroom but I discouraged that option so they chose B-Dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings) which was right next door to Mellow. B-Dubs was so good! I got my wings with the Blue Moon BBQ sauce on them and it was amazing! That was one of the best BBQ sauces I've ever had. 

After our amazing lunch Elder Robins and I went on exchange in Hurstbourne while Elder Patten and Elder Williams went to Indian Trails. Elder Robins and I had a good time. He just barely finished his first transfer and he's already a good missionary. We met with Charles and improvised a lesson on prayer, scripture study, and church. It was improvised because we were going to show him some videos about those subjects but the videos wouldn't work so we just taught about them. It went alright. Charles said he wanted to read the BoM more. 

Later we had Coordination at the church and the Campbells dropped off food at the church for us.

-Friday-

We started early in the morning by doing some yard service for Ms L. She is the lady in charge of the food service at the Methodist church. She picked us and the sisters up to help at her house. We mowed, weed-whacked, cleared trails, etc. After the service Loretta fed us this fantastic meal. It was some kind of shrimp Alfredo but it wasn't Alfredo sauce. I'm not sure what it was. It was like a lighter Alfredo sauce. Anyway, it was amazing! She also had a salad and bread sticks for us. After doing 2 hours of yard service that meal was absolutely heavenly to receive. 

After the service we went back, studied, and exchanged back. Later on, Elder Williams and I visited Bro Strauser in a nursing home. He'll most likely stay there for the rest of his life. It was a good visit. We read some of the BoM with him and explained what it was talking about. 

The rest of the day was spent trying people. 

-Saturday-

We started off by teaching Mr C the Brother of Jared Challenge. He loved it and was excited to give a BoM to one of his friends. After the lesson we walked with him outside while he walked the dog. It was a good visit. 

After Mr C we saw that the local Papa Johns was having a "buy 1 get 1 free" sale so we helped ourselves to some pizza for lunch. 

As far as transfer news goes. Elder Williams and I are staying together. Elder Salazar is coming to Hurstbourne Spanish to replace Elder Passmore and Elder Passmore is going to the new Northside Hurstbourne area. So I'll have 2 of my previous companions close to me. 

Later in the day Elder Williams and I got a little depressed due to the lack of success even though we've been working hard, so we decided to sit down for a minute. It was then that we remembered this investigator that recently moved into the ward named Mr V. We tried to contact him a few days ago but we weren't able to succeed. We tried again and this time he let us in. Mr V is from somewhere in Africa. French is his native language. He was meeting with missionaries down there when he moved here. Our Bishop told us about him first. We got in with him, talked for a bit, and gave him the first lesson. It went really well. He's married with 4 kids. He's the only English speaker. He said he really wanted to come to church the next day. We tried extending a baptismal date but he didn't want to accept at the moment. 

Later on we were trying Mr E and wound up meeting a excommunicated primary president in his complex. She opened up to us and talked about how much she misses the church. We spoke with her and managed to resolve a few of her concerns. She wasn't sure about having us visit yet but I feel like there's potential there. 

-Sunday-

We spent so much time waiting for Mr V and his family that we wound up missing the Sacrament. Vincent came a little late but he came with his whole family. They only stayed for Sacrament but they seemed to enjoy it. 

After church we did some moving service for some LA's. There were a lot of people there so it didn't take long. 

We finished the night with dinner and by breaking our fasts. I ate 3 slices of pizza and half a pineapple. It always feels good to break a fast. 

-> Small Plates <- 

Here's something cool that I realized this week. I realized how the 5 points of the gospel are a model for a successful life. What prompted this was one of Papa John's "employee values/beliefs/whatever's". It was "If you think you can or you think you can't - You're right!" This helped me realize how Faith is Confidence and from that I pondered on the other 4 points and realized how this worked. Here's what I came up with...

Faith = Confidence

Repentance = Change

Baptism = Action

The Gift of the Holy Ghost = Research/Knowledge/Guidance

Endure to the End = Never Giving Up and Forgiveness

Let's say I have a goal to become the best drummer in the world. 

First, I need to have confidence that I can achieve that and not let myself get discouraged. "If you think you can or you think you can't - You're right!" 

Second, I need to change the things that are necessary to change in order to achieve this goal. 

Third, I need to act. I have to practice, get myself out there, play a lot of shows, etc. Acting is key in achieving any goal. 

Fourth, I need to learn from myself, from others, and continue growing as I learn new things. Fifth, I need to keep going. I can't let discouragement get me down. "You have not failed until you quit trying" - Gordon B. Hinckley. I also need to forgive myself and others when I mess up or others mess up. If I am persistent in all of this than there won't be much in the way of me achieving this goal. It might take forever but I should be able to achieve it. 

(Side note: I actually don't want to be the best drummer in the world. This was just a good example I could use.)

-> Closing Remarks <-

I only have 7 more months left?! What?,

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Amazing quote. 

Fun times...

Training for my last day.

At Buffalo Wild Wings. It was actually extremely good.