Unexpected Events

October 10, 2016

Dear Family,

- Large Plates -

There were a couple unplanned, unexpected events this week. One of them was a surprise visit from the Zone Leaders. Another was an unexpected service to help some members move. This was another fun week. 

-Monday-

Normal P-Day again. We taught Mr V again. This time we went over the BoM and gave him a solid commitment to read. He still seems to be progressing but slowly. 

-Tuesday-

This was a pretty full day. We started off seeing Brother Str but we determined that his dementia is too far developed for him to progress. Later on, we briefly saw Mr Ch and discussed General Conference. He said he didn't see it so we invited him to watch it. Later on we were at Wendy's getting frosties when the Zone Leaders called asking us for our church key so we waited for them to pick up the church key. 

After that, we saw Mr V again. This time we found out he had some concerns/issues with the BoM. We addressed them and solved them. I'd say the language barrier is the most difficult thing about teaching him. His English is good enough to have a decent conversation but not good enough to understand gospel principles in English. We also taught Mr V a lot about church organization. He had his computer with him so we were able to show him how everything works very easily. 

Afterwards, the Zone Leaders wanted to meet with us. We're one of the few areas in the zone that don't have anyone with a baptismal date and they wanted to talk with us. They wanted to know how we're doing. They offered some ideas. They wanted to help us, etc. 

-Wednesday-

Service day. ReStore gave me one of their company shirts. It has their slogan on it which is "Just because it's used, doesn't mean it's useless." It's also my first tie-dye shirt :). We got some ugly couches in the store that we had to deal with. They were UGLY!

After Restore, we and the Spanish Elders went to a B-rated "Asian" buffet. That was a stupid idea. It sat like a rock in our insides for a day and a half. 

Later on we went to the Methodist church. We helped serve meatloaf this time. It was a unique meatloaf that had sausage in it. 

-Thursday-

Zone Meeting. There were 2 trainings and they were both on why we decided to serve missions and the Atonement. They were good trainings. They reminded me of the events and experiences I had that led me to serve a mission. It's always good to be reminded of things like that. After the Zone meeting the whole zone did some service at "Feeding America". It's a food donation company. We helped pack food on an assembly line that'll go to people who are struggling. We easily packed hundreds of boxes. It felt good to serve like that. The Feeding America people took a photo and posted it to their Facebook. 

We finished the night at our Baptist family. It's been a while since I've mentioned them. They're a family of baptists that love the missionaries. We visit them occasionally. Normally they're not interested to discuss doctrine but this time they were. We actually were able to have somewhat of a lesson with them. It was nice. They asked questions about man's inherent nature and if we believed in "once saved, always saved".

-Friday-

We felt prompted to try this less-active who lives forever away. Her name was Sister B. We've tried her before but not often because of the distance. However, when we tried her this time she actually answered. She said she could talk for "a little while" and proceeded to talk our ears off for an hour. I'm not sure Kentuckians understand what "a little while" means. She was a nice lady. She and her husband converted several years ago. She said she's been wanting to come back to church.

Later on we ate with the Hall family. They're another young couple in the Ward and surprisingly, Brother Hall isn't a dental student. He's a law student. They gave us Pizza Hut. We still don't get pizza often. 

Right after we finished with the Hall's we happened to run into some semi-less active members who were moving. They caught us as we were walking away and asked us to help move a bit. So we did. They also wanted us to come move some more in the morning. 

-Saturday-

We started off by helping the semi-less actives move. It was an average move. After the moving we visited Sister Sos and taught her about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She said she's been wanting to come back to church. After her, we visited Charles and had a bit of an improvised lesson on life and how the gospel can help with life. It went well. I hope he acts on what we told him. 

After the day's activities, our sweet upstairs neighbors had us over for dinner. They've become friends of ours since we've been here. It shouldn't take much effort to make them investigators. They've had experiences with missionaries in the past where they used to live so they have positive opinions of us. And those opinions have become better since we've been here because we're bosses :). 

-Sunday-

It was a pretty relaxed Sunday for us. Church was great. After church I grilled some fish that some members gave us in our George Forman grill. It was fantastic :). I ate so healthy this week. I had broccoli, carrots, oranges, eggs, fish, and chocolate milk on the menu this week. I just need to start working out and I could put some muscle on :). 

- Small Plates -

Based off a certain General Conference talk, I don't remember which, I started reading the Book of Mormon and the New Testament like I've never read them before. I read at least a chapter a day out of both. It's been interesting reading the scriptures like this. I feel like I'm better able to imagine what's going on in the stories instead of focusing on the doctrine. It puts the gospel into a more human aspect. I feel like it's easy to separate the doctrine and how it applies to life but I've found that reading the scriptures like I've never read them helps me see how the doctrine applies in the stories they're in. It's been fun! I'd recommend doing this!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

ReStore gave me a shirt with their slogan on it.

This is usually what our apartment looks like. I promise we clean it once a week :)

Us

Time

October 3, 2016

Dear Family,

I don't think it's hit me yet. I hit 18 months this week and I don't really feel any different. Also, I don't care what you say, it has not been 6 months since the last General Conference! There is simply no way it's been that long. I vividly remember watching April's conference in Owensboro. And now I've already watched one here in Hurstbourne. 

(Oh my... time is speeding up!)

This week was an adventurous week here in Hurstbourne. It had rain, adventures to parts of the area we've never seen before, General Conference, and the other general adventures that comes with being a missionary. Get the excitement below!...

<- Large Plates ->

-Monday-

Another normal P-Day full of shopping, emailing, and resting. We were going to help some LA's move but they wound up cancelling.

-Tuesday-

I picked up my small package and was quite surprised at the contents. A bag of great beef jerky and another Carrabbas gift card! Elder Williams and I are excited. 

Later on we met with Brother Reich. He served his mission in Kentucky back in the 50's. He told us what it was like. He also told us how different the Eastern Parkway building was. He served a chunk of his mission in Paducah which isn't in our mission now. He said back then it was a branch. Now it's a stake center. He said back then there wasn't a single stake in Kentucky or anywhere in the eastern US. Now stakes cover everything. The Church has grown quite a bit.

Later we met with Bro L. He's an interesting less-active. He grew up in the church, went through seminary and everything, but never gave the Book of Mormon a true chance. The result? No testimony. He's a nice guy and all, but he, himself said he doesn't know what he believes. His mom and his brother are still active. Bro L and his non-member wife are somewhat looking for a family church. They said they want a church that emphasized the family. As far as I know, we're the best church at that :). 

Weather-wise, this was probably the most perfect day I've had my whole mission. The air was clearer than it has ever been. The whole day was cool but not cold. There was a tiny breeze. The colors were vibrant. The sun was out. I honestly just enjoyed biking around Kentucky in this weather. I wish every day was like that but I guess I wouldn't appreciate it if it were like that :).

-Wednesday-

Service day. We went to ReStore for only an hour this time. We had to leave early to visit a less-active our Bishop wanted us to see. While we were at ReStore, Elder Williams got a 3rd bike. It's an ancient 1-speed road bike. All 3 of his bikes are trashed. He inherited all of them. It's missionary bikes like his that caused me to buy a bike. I was tired of dealing with all the problems that come with a hand-me-down bikes. 

Anyway... We biked up to this less-active and guess what... he fell through... So we got Arby's and ate lunch at the church. We had full intention to leave the church after our lunch hour but do you know what happened next? You guessed it! It started raining hard! So we had to stay in the church for longer. The storm was severe enough that it kept us in the church for a while. When the storm finally ended after an eternity, it was time to go to the Methodist church. It was easy helping out this time because all we did was make spaghetti, salad, and bread. After we helped out there the main minister at the Methodist church gave us a full church tour. It was pretty fun! This minister reminded me of our stake president here. 

-Thursday-

District meeting. And you know what? It rained again! This time on the 15 minute walk to the Eastern Parkway building from the bus stop. Yeah... Wanna know what the best part was? Some zone leaders from another zone drove by us, yelled at us, and didn't pick us up in the rain :). 

In the district meeting the sisters gave a great training on teaching people, not lessons. They did this by emphasizing that it's more important for someone to have a spiritually uplifting experience than for you to cover all the material. 

After the district meeting Sister Williams wanted me to do some work on her new bike. It took me 30 minutes to fix everything on that bike. There was a lot wrong with it. Someone who shall remain nameless helped Sister Williams put it together and didn't do the best job. However, her bike works just fine now :). 

Later on we visited Mr V. He said he had a concern about if he should have his kids speak English all the time to help them out with school here or have them speak both to retain his culture. We told him that General Conference was coming up and that he could take that question to the conference and that it would be answered. He became excited to watch the conference. The best part is he'll be able to watch it in French.  

-Friday-

For the most part this day was one of those classic days where you try everyone but no one answers. I had to do some minor work on my bike. The front tube wasn't working right and it was causing the tire to be inflated unevenly. I had to buy a new tube to fix it. 

Towards the end of the day Brother Love (yes, we have a Love family in our ward) picked us up for dinner. Brother Love was from a less-active part-member family before his mission. He was baptized into the church a couple years before his mission and baptized his wife when he got back. Brother Love made these amazing tacos for dinner. He learned on his mission that the acid in pineapple juice tenderizes meat so he cooked his taco meat with chunks of pineapple in it. Not only did that make the meat taste great, it was very tender too! 

-Saturday-

General Conference #4! 18 months! We started the day off with teaching Sis Sos. It was a simple lesson on reading praying and coming to church. She said she had the conference set to record before we even brought it up. We then watched the first session and it was amazing. That was probably my favorite session from the whole conference. I learned a lot of things that will help me move forward. It's kinda crazy how truly inspired the leaders of the church are. They answered several of my questions and gave me council necessary for me at this time. I absolutely love General Conference now. 

Between the first and second sessions we had lunch at Arby's. A member happened to be there and paid for our meals. That doesn't happen too often. 

Then we watched the second session and it was amazing as always. More guidance and direction. And as always, a special feeling of peace. 

In between the second session and the Priesthood session we got ice cream nearby. We finished the night with the Priesthood session. It was amazing. 

-Sunday-

General Conference again. We watched the first session and were edified there. After the first session we tried Mr V but he was working. Then we watched the second session. I hate it when General Conference ends. It's hard sitting through it but there's a feeling there that I don't like leaving. It's hard to leave conference.

We finished the night at the Haws house. We had coordination and in the process had dinner. That was great :).

<- Small Plates ->

A major theme of Conference that I picked up on was appreciation. Appreciation for the gospel, for the Lord, for your blessings, etc. There were several talks that mentioned appreciation. I feel like honest and sincere appreciation is difficult at times. We might be worried with something else to give the Lord an honest and sincere "Thanks". On the other hand, we might just get used to various things in the gospel and our thanks become rote. I try to be honest and sincere with this. 

Although as missionaries and as people in general, we'll pray for the same things over and over again, I feel like the repetition itself is less important than the intention behind it. 

Do you appreciate the gospel? Do you remember how you felt the first time you felt the Spirit testify to you? Can you feel so now?

Love,

Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Oh! By the way... Elder Gary E Stevenson and Elder Juan A Uceda are coming to the GKLM on October 15th. They're going to have a 2-hour training session in the Crestwood Stake Center right next to the temple specifically for missionaries. It's mission-wide so I'll get to see everyone!

Pretty cool!

Learned a new trick for cutting pineapples. 

At Krispie Kreme again for raspberry-filled goodness!

The Elder Williams!