Counselors of the Lord

February 27, 2017

Dear Family,

The title comes from something we do on an almost daily basis. We basically counsel people. A lot. We sit down with them, listen to them, and try to help them by teaching whatever aspects of the Gospel they need to hear. 

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

This P-Day was easily the best P-Day I've had here. We went to Madison and hiked Clifty Falls with the Madison elders. It wasn't a typical hike. The first bit was a nice decline on well-worn trails down to a stream. Then we had to walk along all the rocks along the stream. We even had to cross the stream multiple times on little rocks. The part before the falls themselves was the most intense. All trails disappeared. The one way to get to the falls was to jump and climb over multiple large rocks and dead trees. It was a lot of fun!

-Tuesday-

This was where Elder Kloepfer left and Elder McIntosh came. The Diels drove us down to the Eastern Parkway building. While I was waiting for Elder McIntosh, I talked with a lot of the people I knew. I managed to see Sis Wilde there. We didn't get to talk much. I at least got to say "hi." When Elder McIntosh came, we shipped out. 

Elder McIntosh, my new companion, is a cool guy. He's a convert to the church of about 3 years. He's very relaxed like me and we like a lot of the same music :). This last transfer should be an easy one. After he got settled in, we called bingo at the nursing home. This time, I got to call out the numbers and deal with the bingo cards while Elder McIntosh helped Mary. Later, we visited Bro L and the H family. They enjoyed meeting the new guy. 

-Wednesday-

Elder McIntosh got to meet Ms Ro for the first time. We had a better than average visit with her. We read Mosiah 10 and had a good discussion on scripture study. Everything was going well until her daughter came in. She is... well... not very helpful. She contributes to a lot of Ms Ro's stress. 

Later on, we did some biking in 65 degree weather. This week had some very warm days and some very cold days. On our bike trip, we biked by Ms M's house. Her house is a duplex. She lives in the left side. Mr D, our investigator lives in the right side. As we biked by we happened to catch all of them outside. It was crazy. They all wanted to meet Edler McIntosh. 

-Thursday-

We did a lot of service. All the usual Thursday service stuff. The Clearinghouse in the morning was quite busy. They had a lot more donations than they knew what to do with. Food 4 R Souls in the evening was the opposite. Hardly anyone showed up. 

After all the service, we visited Jo and Sis S. We had a good visit with Jo but we decided with him that it would be best if we gave him a break to read, ponder, and pray. He's a good kid with a desire to repent but his desire hasn't grown into action yet. We'll be seeing him again in about a month. 

Sis S wasn't having a good day. A lot was happening. We read Ether 12 with her and talked with her. She became a lot happier after the conversation. I feel like God uses us as counselors frequently. We go to people, listen to them talk about what's bothering them, then we'll teach them something that will help them, or read something that will help them, or both. Usually by the time we finish, the people we meet are a lot happier. 

We tried to meet with H & P but they were busy. They gave us some of their farm fresh eggs though. I've already had a few of them. They're pretty good! The yolk is a lot darker than store bought eggs. 

-Friday-

This was a fun day. We had a good district meeting in Madison, IN. Elder Irwin trained on commitments and why we ask people to do things. The answer is simple. People have to search out the truth for themselves. They need personal experiences that come from their actions. Commitments are a way of getting people to act on their own. If someone doesn't act on their own, conversion won't take place. 

Later, we saw Ms Ro again. This time the first few minutes were awful but Sis Morgan showed up, sat in on the lesson, and helped turn the whole thing around. It wound up being a great visit. 

We had dinner with the Bandas. Bro Banda likes fancy tie knots. He showed me how to tie Tulip and Resurrection knots. Tulips are easy. Resurrections are now the most difficult knot I know how to do. I'll have to send pics. 

We finished the night with Mr H. He wasn't having a good day also. We talked with him, read with him, and turned his evening around. There we go being counselors again. 

-Saturday-

This was an odd day. There isn't a whole lot to tell about it. We tried to reassemble a broken exercise machine. We visited an old less-active who likes politics too much. We saw Mr K in his tattoo shop. It's impossible to teach about the gospel in a tattoo shop. Yeah... 

Here's a highlight. Bro Dickenson and Bro Smith from the Greenville, KY ward came to visit Elder McIntosh. Greenville was McIntosh's previous area. Bro Dickenson and Bro Smith are mission-famous for being friends of the missionaries. Similarly to Sis Robinson (everyone knows her as "Grandma") or Sis Blackwell. They loved Elder McIntosh so they wanted to come visit. And they wanted to bring a lot of his stuff he left in the Greenville apartment. They were planning on Monday but something popped up preventing that. So they came Saturday night. They took us out to Burger King. They're are both converts to the church. 

-Sunday-

They stayed the night in a motel so they could come to church with us. The church services themselves were pretty normal. Have I mentioned that the Scottsburg branch has a modified 2.5 hour service instead of 3 hours? I'm honestly not sure why that is. I've heard it's because a lot of the members here don't like 3 hours. After church, they started the long drive back to Greenville. 

We had a late lunch/early dinner with the Diels. They fed us a beef stew. It was quite satisfying. We finished the night visiting Sis S for a bit. She was busy with Girls Scout things so she couldn't talk much. She gave us free cookies! 

-> Small Plates <-

I've been doing my 6 chapter a day Book of Mormon study. It's been very interesting going through it that quickly. I read almost 100 pages last week. What's interesting is that it's almost like a review of everything I've learned on my mission. Whatever subject the verses I'm reading are on, I remember my experiences of learning about that subject. 

I also remember verses or insights that have stood out to me in the past. i.e. Laman and Lemuel being bums because they "knew not God" and were "past feeling". Or how the Liahona working according to faith AND diligence. Or the awesome description of Christ found in 2 Nephi 1 (Lehi uses some very Christlike terms to describe Nephi towards the end of the chapter. I'd highly recommend reading that.) I've also reviewed my knowledge of the laws of justice and mercy in 2 Nephi 9.

You might be wondering, "what's the spiritual thought here?" Well, to be honest, I don't know entirely myself. There wasn't really anything I read out of the BoM this week that opened my understanding like the laws of justice and mercy did or the description of the Atonement in Alma 7:11-13: 
11 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. 
12 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. 
13 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.

I guess, what I got out of the BoM this week was an increased testimony of it. There's no way it's not true or fake. It's honestly illogical to believe it's not true. The doctrines in the BoM work too well to be untrue. 

For those who deny it, you have no idea what blessings you're denying yourself. 

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

My new companion is Elder McIntosh.
(How do you like the Trinity knot?)

New District

"It's My Birthday! (I deserve attention)"

February 20, 2017

Dear Family,

For the sake of time and sanity (yours and mine) I'll keep this letter short. I'm just going to talk about the best highlights of each day. 

The title of this email comes from a button the Diels gave me on my birthday. Speaking of that, I'm 21 now! Yay! I don't feel too different. A couple days after my birthday someone asked me how old I was. I had to stop and think for a second. I'm not 20 anymore. I'm 21! 

I've also begun my last transfer. Because of that I've been enrolled in the "My Plan" program. It's a six week course I take online every week. It's all about going home. It's super trunky. I've also made a goal to read through the whole BoM in my last transfer. That's about 6 chapters a day. It'll be fun!

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

Any P-Day you give 2 blessings is an abnormal P-Day. We gave a blessing to Bro Ponder, our branch mission leader, for a head injury he sustained recently. He's doing better now. He's healing. The second blessing was for a Sister's mom who just got out of the hospital for some reason. She's old. It could have been anything. 

We saw Mr Ad like usual and read out of the BoM with him. Whenever we read with him, we read where he's at. This time, he was in one of the Isaiah chapters in 1 Nephi. It's difficult enough explaining Isaiah to an adult. Try explaining Isaiah to a 16 year old. It's hard! Very hard! 

-Tuesday-

It was Valentine's Day. This holiday means nothing to missionaries. 

We called bingo again. For some reason, it being Valentine's Day made the care center MUCH busier than it normally is. There were SO many old people there playing bingo. Elder Koepfer and I had to yell out the numbers so everyone could hear them. B-12!!!!! I-19!!!!! N-34!!!!! G-55!!!!! O-70!!!!! 

We taught a man named Jo for the first time. Elder Williams and I met him on our exchange last week. We weren't able to teach him much because he kept telling us all about his Bible experiences in prison. He read through the New Testament 3 times and wrote it out once. Because he's actually studied the Bible, he knows a lot of doctrine. From what we've heard so far, his doctrinal understanding is correct. We introduced the BoM to him, and of course, he took interest in it. I feel like he'll actually read it. 

-Wednesday-

I turned 21... It still hasn't hit me. As far as the missionary work went, next to nothing happened... Really... Nothing. We had a weekly planning session. Everyone we tried didn't answer. Life's hard. 

Apart from that the day was actually pretty good. I got a lot of "Happy Birthday" wishes from a lot of people. Elder Irwin, the zone leaders, members I've met in the mission, less actives, friends and family from home, and even a few investigators. It felt good seeing all the wishes from people I knew. 

The Diel's took us out to dinner for the occasion. They gave me a button that said "It's My Birthday! (I deserve attention)." I wore it to district meeting later in the week. :D 

-Thursday-

Typical for most Thursdays, we did a lot of service at the Clearinghouse and Food 4 R Souls. We happened to run into Ms Ro at the Clearinghouse. We were able to set up a time to meet later that day. That was good because it had been a a while since we saw her. The meeting itself was normal. She's still Ms Ro. She's kinda stuck. We're running out of ideas of how to help her. She's probably going to have to help herself more at this point.

Food 4 R Souls was the busiest it had ever been. There were an excessive amount of people. I felt like the whole town was there.

-Friday-

Another district meeting came and went. I don't have many more to go to. Elder Irwin had everyone in the district give mini-trainings on different aspects of following the Spirit. Our topic was about conversion and how the Spirit affects that. It went well. I felt like I learned some things from what Elder Kloepfer and I were saying. 

Later in the day we had a surprise. We decided to go try some members who live in the top right corner of the area. We had to drive on some one-lane gravel roads to get to their place. When we got there, we were welcomed openly. Bro R basically founded the Scottsburg branch forever ago. He had quite the impressive list of callings. He had a lot of trials starting with the 2008 recession that led him to be less-active at the edge of our area. He said he wants to come back to church and wants to feel the Spirit again. It's difficult for him to go anywhere though because he has to take care of his bed-ridden wife. He has potential. We'll see what happens. 

Later that night we met with A, J and B. We read a chapter with them. That's when B went off. He likes to tell a lot of random weird stories. He told like 5 in this visit. The best one is when he tried to buy a rocket launcher from a gun shop next to a Pentecostal church way out in the country. 

(Note: I had to turn my auto-correct off so I could use the words and grammar B used in this story.) "Oh my goodness. My most favoritest gun that I've wanted ever since I was an itty bitty kid... is a rocket launcher!" (My thought here was "B, that's not a gun.") 

"I went out to this gun shop in the country next to a Pentecostal church and asked the man, 'Do you guys have a rocket launcher?'" (My thought here was "Who thought it was a good idea to open a gun shop next to a Pentecostal church? Is it even legal to sell rocket launchers to civilians?") 

"The man said 'Yeah! Right up there!' I looked up and said, 'Oh boy! I've died and gone to B heaven!' The man told me they cost twenty grand. I looked at him and said 'Are you high?" (Oh, B...)

-Saturday-

Saturday was one of "those days..." We had 4 appointments with G, Ms Ro, Bro L and H & P, the family we taught last week. Guess how many of those 4 went through... 0... Yeah... It was rough. Everyone was sick. 

On an interesting note, we got to drive out of the mission! It's not often we do that. Miss B lives north of the Scottsburg boundary. The northern boundary is also the mission boundary. For some reason she and her family have permission to attend Scottsburg even though they live in North Vernon's area. Because of that, we're allowed to go up there to visit them occasionally. The distance to their house is another reason we have most lessons at the church. Unfortunately, Miss B wasn't there. Her dad was. We we talked to him for a bit. He's a nice guy. Works on semi's for a living. 

-Sunday-

Sunday was similar to Saturday. We had a few appointments that feel through. Church was good though. There were some uplifting talks and lessons given. We've been combined in 3rd hour for about 3 weeks straight now, getting ready to start this whole "Come, Follow Me" thing. It's going to be fun!

We met a less-active member named J for the first time. He hasn't been too church since he was 17 in the 70's. He disagreed with the whole race and priesthood thing. His wife is a nice lady. She's not a member either. They're in the process of finding a church. She's Catholic, he's Baptist and they're trying to find a church they can both agree on.

-> Small Plates <-

In going to do something a little different this week. I'm going to help you find your own spiritual thought! Towards the back of the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" book there's a list of scriptures that are particularly uplifting. I've used this list on days I feel particularly down. It's helped a lot. I'll write the references down and encourage you to look up the scriptures yourself. 

Do you want to be uplifted? Read these:

• Isaiah 41:10
• John 14:27
• 2 Timothy 1:7
• 1 Nephi 1:20
• Jacob 3:1
• Jacob 4:7
• Mosiah 4:27
• Mosiah 24:13-14
• Alma 7:12
• Alma 26:27
• Alma 38:5
• Ether 12:27
• D&C 6:32-36
• D&C 58:2-4
• D&C 122:7-9
• Bible Dictionary, "Fear"

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Hiking with Elder Kloepfer

And Elder Irwin and Elder Williams

Clifty Falls

Panorama

Cool pano!

District Pics!

Bro & Sis Diel, Elders Cox & Kloepfer, the Sisters, Elders Irwin & Williams

Fun!

  

A Bit of Everything

February 13, 2017

Dear Family,

This week had a bit of everything. Everything from snow to 60 degree weather. Everything from walking around trying to find people to teaching solid first lessons. I even got to go on exchange with Elder Williams, one of my old comps! 

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

We did all the normal P-Day things. Washing clothes. Cleaning the apartment. Etc. 

I'd say the highlight of Monday was teaching Mr Ad, the LA who actually came to church last week. We read out of the BoM and had a discussion on the house of Israel because one of the chapters we read was an Isaiah chapter on that. That's a subject we normally don't teach because it's difficult to explain. I barely understand it myself.

-Tuesday-

We watched the broadcast from a couple weeks ago. The one that changed the schedule and key indicators. There were several things I learned from watching it a second time. There's a way Elder Bednar explained the gospel that blew most missionaries minds because it was so simple and yet so profound. I'll be sure to put it word for word in the small plates. 

To continue the Tuesday tradition we called bingo again! Woo! I enjoy spending time with people who have lived most of their life. By that age, people seem to learn what's most important in life and so they act kinder. Not all of them :). But most of them. 

The evening died. We tried several peeps in Austin. Few answered. One of our potentials told us he didn't want to read the BoM but he'd still like to talk to us. Yeah... We usually don't work with people who refuse to read the BoM. That's kinda (extremely) important in the conversion process. We'll see. We'll give him another chance or two. 

As we were leaving Austin we saw a fight break out between 5-7 guys or so... Yeah... We stayed away from that.  

-Wednesday-

Do you ever have those moments when you're fighting to stay awake? That's what happened to us as we struggled through another weekly planning session. We lost the fight... 

After (time omitted) we took a trip down to Lexington and tried just about everyone we knew there. I think 2 peeps answered. One of them was a LA member. Yeah... 

After Lexington we finished the night by walking around Scottsburg. When we started our walk there was a light hail. About 15 minutes in, that turned into thick snow. About 30 minutes after that everything was covered in a half-inch of snow. The weather here is ridiculous. 

-Thursday-

Guess what we did! We did more service at the Clearinghouse. They actually had a lot to do for us this time. We couldn't finish. There were so many things to sort. 

Later on, the Diels took us to Sis Terrell's for dinner. Her son is allergic to everything so the dinner was basically all fruits and veggies. It was good! SisTerrell has a country home in the middle of nowhere. It's very quiet. 

We finished the night with Bro L. We read with him and listened to him rant about life. He let us borrow his carpet cleaner that shampoos carpets. That night we went home and cleaned the carpets. They needed to be cleaned. 7 years of missionaries is not good for an apartment. The next project will be to spackle the 1000+ little holes in the walls. Fun!

-Friday-

We had a multi-zone conference. It was our zone and the Crestwood zone. That's about 60 missionaries. There were some good trainings given. President Brough had some good things to say. Most of the meeting was about bearing testimony. The broadcast from a couple weeks ago was also discussed. 

After the meeting I went on exchange with Elder Williams in Scottsburg. Surprisingly, a lot happened in the last 3 hours of the day. As we drove back to Scottsburg I was craving Wendy's for dinner. So I went to Wendy's. About 2 bites into my sammich, a couple sitting next to us started talking to us. They asked us for pamphlets. We gave them some pamphlets and started talking to them. The lady was named Wendy. I think it's funny we met her at Wendy's. I forgot the guy's name. They're in the process of moving to Scottsburg. Wendy's sister is a member of the church. As we talked the guy told us "I've been wanting to get back into church. Something's been missing from my life."

I was floored!

Here we are in Wendy's, a nice couple came to us and started talking about church, they're moving to our area, they said something's been missing in their lives and they want to come to church. That experience was probably the most picture-perfect contact I've every had. I should obey my food cravings more often. :)

Williams and I finished the night by watching Prophet of the Restoration with the Hy family. A few non-members were there. We got to answer a lot of Q's. :D

-Saturday-

A lot happened on Saturday too. We exchanged back in Blocher, Indiana. There's just a gas station there. 

We wound up spending most of the day in Austin. *sigh* We had plans to try this former member. He was taught a couple years ago. We happened to him outside his house. We talked for a minute and got him to open up to future visits. We'll see if he goes anywhere this time. 

We had a good first visit with a LA named Bro P. He's a nice old guy who's LA because of health reasons. He talked to us for a bit and asked us to read out of the BoM for him. I almost feel guilty for never visiting this guy before. 

We had another visit with Sis S. This time we read Alma 34 with her. She seems to be more peaceful now that we're meeting with her more often. It shouldn't be too much longer before she starts coming back to church. 

We had a great first lesson with some potentials we picked up a couple weeks ago. Their names are H & P. They're a younger couple. They have 2 young boys. They're all basically "dry Mormons" with how family-oriented they already are. They spend as lot of time together and they teach each other the gospel as often as they can. Our first lesson with them was on eternal families. H liked that because she lost her dad a few years ago. We're meeting with them again on Saturday. Hopefully they progress well. 

-Sunday-

Of all the days of the week... Sunday was the worst... At least the weather was awesome! What made it so bad? Well... Honestly there were only 2 or 3 events that made it bad. The rest was average. At church the Diels gave awesome talks. They're awesome old people ;). It was just us and J in Gospel Principles. It was almost as if we were just teaching him in his home. 3rd hour was combined to talk about the new "Come, Follow Me" program. The New Albany stake is one of the 3 stakes in the US to pilot that program. It changes the way Sunday School and Primary work. I'll go over the details of that when I get home. :) 

Remember that sweet part-member family I told you about last week? S & S? Well... Her dad, who's an active member in the branch, pulled us aside and told us to stop working with them because apparently "they're too nice to say no" and I guess us trying to work with them would tear them apart... Yeah... Her dad didn't explain the details well... At all... Anyway... I won't explain everything about our meeting with him. It was enough to upset me because her dad said in effect "I don't trust you guys." Yeah... I don't like small town drama. 

Later that day we had dinner with the Diel's. They fed us Phillippino food. They had chicken with a sauce similar to teriyaki sauce. They also had fried rice with soy sauce. It was very similar to some of the meals I had growing up. It was very good! 

Usually on Sunday nights we go to the church to use the WiFi to make sure all of our lesson reports for the week are accurate and reported on. Usually we just park the car next to the church and sit in it for convenience. Guess who decided to show up as we were sitting in the car... The cops... Yeah... My heart dropped a bit when I noticed the cop car next to us. I rolled the window down and one of the cops, there were two in the car, said something like "Hey, we usually don't see cars here at night." I replied with "Oh! We're missionaries for this church. We're just using the WiFi." Then the cop quickly put his hand up and said "Alright. Have a nice night." And they drove off. I thought it was funny how fast they got out when they found out we were missionaries. :D

-> Small Plates <-

Here are a couple quotes from Elder Bednar from the missionary broadcast from a couple weeks ago. You can watch the broadcast here. 

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/worldwide-missionary-broadcast/2017/01?lang=eng 

I'd suggest watching it. It's cool! In this broadcast the members of the missionary executive council were asked questions about missionary work and they all gave their thoughts on it. These quotes are a couple of the answers Elder Bednar gave to some of the questions. 

The question for this quote was something like "How does a missionary know that they really know and understand the gospel?" 

Elder Bednar's answer was: "I think, too often we as members of the church have a cookbook, checklist mentality about living the gospel. So, faith is this little separate thing, and then repentance is a separate thing, and then there's an ordinance of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. All things are gathered together in one in Christ. So, faith is in the Savior, in Him as the Son of God, in His nature and attributes. Repentance is a dependence upon Him. Faith in Him, depending upon Him. Following Him is baptism. Pressing forward with Him is enduring to the end with the companionship of the Holy Ghost. It's all gathered together in Him. So, as we are proclaiming our continuing dependence upon Christ, that is repentance, which leads to the mighty change of heart." 

The question for this quote was something like "How can I keep my investigators focused on baptism?" 

Elder Bednar's answer was similar to the first: "All things gather together in one. Again of we just treat baptism as separate and apart from 'Okay, I did the repentance thing, so now I guess the next thing is baptism.' It's ongoing. They're all inter-related. In my judgement there is little or no spiritual power in treating these fundamental elements of the doctrine of Christ as separate things. It's when they're tied together we see 'faith unto repentance, and repentance proceeding baptism, and baptism helping us press forward on the straight and narrow path, the covenant pathway.' When we see all of those tied together, there's power. Not when they're separated."

Have fun!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Great Morning!

Selfie... yes, my eyes are that color!

Elder Williams selfie

Young People, Old People

February 6, 2017

Dear Family,

This week. We had a blast. We worked with a lot of members. Got fed a few times. Yeah... I don't have much of an introduction to this email. These introductions are actually the last thing I write when I write these weeklys. I think that's funny because they're the first thing you read. Usually when I get to writing the introduction I'm tired. These emails take a lot of energy to write. Have fun!

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

We spent half the day at the Diels using their washer and dryer. Ours are broken. When we got the clothes done they fed us lunch again. When we finished there, we napped for the rest of the day. We didn't have to buy much since Sister Staker did most of our shopping last week. 

As usual, we visited the H family. We read out of the BoM with him and answered their deep Q's about the resurrection. We almost couldn't answer them. Almost :). 

-Tuesday-

Most mornings here in Scottsburg are pretty bland. There's usually not much to do in the mornings. So we usually go on long walks through town and talk with the people we met along the way. On Tuesday's walk, we ran into a less-active who was baptized a few years ago. We talked for a minute and he said he'll get a ride to church. 

It's always surprised me how many less-actives I've ran into on the streets. On average, I seem to meet 1 every month. Usually the ones we met like that are nice and want us to come over.

Speaking of less active work, Elder Kloepfer and I have been doing a lot more less-active work lately. President Penrod told us there are a lot of people on the roster who were baptized before they were ready for it. He also gave us a list of part-members to work with. As we've worked on the members more, our days have been a lot more productive. 

Later on we called bingo again! Woo! I've got to a point where I know most of the people's names now. Mary is the one I know the best because she's the one I always help out. She's one of the nicest ladies ever. 

Later, the Diels drove us up to the Morgans for dinner. The food was great. Sis Morgan is a great cook. The Morgans and the Diels hit it off. They're basically the same people. They talked for a long time. It reminded of me of all those family gatherings where I would be ready to leave but mom would continue to talk with someone for another 3 hours. :) Eventually we left, and the Diels took us to visit Sis Schultz. Again, the Diels and Sis Schultz really hit it off. They're going to plant a garden together. They didn't talk as long this time. 

-Wednesday-

22 months! Wow! If I hadn't got that week extension I would be coming home next month. I was originally supposed to come home March 29th but the extension pushed it to April 5th. #Trunky 

We had coordination for the first time in a while with Bro Ponder. About half way through, Elder Diel and Bro Ponder went off on a long tangent about false doctrine. Yeah... #OldPeople. 

We taught Miss B again! Woo! She's doing great. We taught her L3 and it was the most distracted lesson ever. We meet with Miss B, her mom and her two younger brothers at the church every week. Usually, we just let the two younger brothers destroy the nursery while we teach Miss B. This time around, they were particularly bad. They were in and out every 2 seconds. Miss B couldn't help but get onto them every time they yelled. Yeah... #YoungPeople. Somehow we got through the lesson. 

We had dinner with the Spelts. They both talk a lot and they'll talk at the same time. Bro Spelt went off about the same Vietnam stories he's told us. Yeah... #OldPeople. The food was good. They had simple spaghetti. 

-Thursday-

Went to Madison for district meeting again. Instead of going to the Downtowner we went to the Hong Kong Kitchen. It was decently authentic. Still super greasy. I was the only one there that knew how to properly use chop sticks. Everyone else was cheating and struggling. 

After that we visited a couple of less-actives with the Diels. First we visited Bro V. He's 90 years old but somehow still has perfect hearing and vision. He's nice. But like other #OldPeople he's set in his ways. He can come to church, he just doesn't for some reason. He lives too far away for us to visit him regularly. 

Next, we visited Sis Johnson. We couldn't visit long because she had to go somewhere but she and Sister Diel seemed to hit it off decently. 

Eventually, we and the Diel's separated and we went to Food 4 R Souls. It was the same as always. I served food. 

We saw Jo! And we were actually able to teach him something. We read Alma 36 with him. Jorge's dad actually turned the TV off so we wouldn't be distracted as we spoke with him. The lesson went well. He's slowly opening up more and progressing. 

Because of how the day went, we had our Companion Study at the end of the day. Because we didn't need to set lesson plans at the end of the day, we just watched ancient church videos from the 80's. 

-Friday-

Well... Friday was slow. The only highlight was teaching Ms Ro. We read 2 Nephi 31 with her and answered her Q's about baptism. She wanted to know the history of baptism. That's something we don't know well, so we told her what we knew, and said we'd look into that more. 

-Saturday-

Saturday made up for Friday. We taught Char. He's a former in Austin. He's interesting. He wants to be baptized but "not be a Mormon". So basically, he wants to be baptized but be less-active. Yeah... I'm not going to explain... #OldPeople 

We had dinner and a lesson with Sis Schultz. We read Alma 32 with her and she loved it. That was a chapter she read with the missionaries when she was first investigating. It really helped her out with the trials she's going through now. 

We finished the night with Bro Ll. At this point we don't really teach him anything anymore. We just read with him and listen while he rants about his life. Yeah... #OldPeople 

-Sunday-

We had a great time at church! There were 8 less-actives and 1 recent convert who showed up! The Chapel was almost full. One of the less-actives who showed up was Bryan, the guy we met on Tuesday. He actually did get a ride. The other less-actives were members we are either working with or trying to work with. It was great to see them all there. Funny thing is, President Penrod asked us before church if we were expecting anyone to show up. We told him "No, not really." But then a lot of people came. Woo! 

Gospel principles was fun. It was just 2 people and the Diels. One person is surprisingly solid for being less-active for so long. Maybe he'll come back now. 

After church we had dinner/lunch with the Diels. They had some great pineapple! And pork. 

We finished the week on a strong note. We met the Robi family for the first time. The mom is a member. She's the daughter of Bro Ware who is one of the nicest guys ever. He kind of reminds me of dad. Her husband is not a member. They have 2 young boys. I don't know why she's less-active and I don't know why he isn't a member. They're one of the most Mormon families I've ever seen as far as how they treat their kids. They love their kids. They're so good to them. They play with them frequently. They're super nice themselves. We weren't able to bring up the gospel as we visited them because their boys were all over the place, but when we offered to leave them with a prayer, they happy accepted. It would be awesome they became solid. I'll let you all know how that goes. 

-> Small Plates <-

Since we read Alma 32 a time or two this week I would like to discuss my favorite part. I can't remember if I've talked about this before. If I have, sorry. If I haven't, great! 

My favorite verse in Alma 32 is actually verse 35. It reads: "O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good; and now behold, after ye have tasted this light is your knowledge perfect?"

I would like to direct your attention to the middle part of the verse that said "whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good." 

I've always thought that wording was fascinating. To help me explain, I'm going to tell a story about this. 

In Owensboro, during one of the Gospel Principles classes, Bro Emmert asked us what our favorite feature in nature was. The responses were "I like mountains," "I like the ocean," I like the forest," etc. Then came my turn to answer. I answered "Light. Light is my favorite feature in nature." Bro. Emmert asked me "Why is that?" and I said "Because light is the thing that enables you to see the mountains, and the ocean, and the forest. Without light, you couldn't see those." Or in other words, light allows you to discern the mountains and the oceans and the forests. "And whatsoever is light is good, because it is discernible." 

Whenever the scriptures talk about Satan or wickedness in general they always describe it with words like "dark/darkness" or "secret". Darkness makes things un-discernible. Things that are secret are hidden, usually in darkness. 

So physical light allows you to see things. What's mental light then? That would be knowledge. What's spiritual light? That would be Jesus Christ. There are several places in the scriptures where He's referred to as the "Light of the world." How does Christ give us light? By giving us knowledge about the gospel and the plan of salvation and about many other things. 

I could go on. But I invite you to ponder on the light in your life. 

Have fun!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

One year ago in Owensboro!

Playing UNO with Elder Passmore and Elder Gough

Count Your Blessings

January 30, 2017

Dear Family,

Anyway, this week we had an abnormal amount of blessings. This was one of the most blessing-filled weeks of my mission for way more reasons than I could mention. So get the details below...

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

What would missionaries do without P-Day's? Suffer. That's what we would do without P-Day's. However, sometimes we suffer even with P-Day's. That happens when you spend 4 hours cleaning and maintaining your bike because there's nothing else for you to do. That's what I did on this P-Day after all the normal shopping and emailing and stuff. 

Later on we were able to get in with Jo for the first time in forever. He's the 17 year-old who wants to learn how to repent. We were finally able to go over repentance. We didn't spend long with him but it was time well spent. We had a solid lesson with him. He told us he knows he needs to repent and he wants to, but he thinks he's not ready for full repentance yet. We're trying to teach him that a desire to repent comes from the Spirit and that proves that he's ready for it. We'll see what happens. 

-Tuesday-

Tuesday is bingo day. We called bingo again. Nothing abnormal happened.  

Later on in the day we had our interviews. I mostly talked about how sick I've been... Yeah... That's that. 

We met with a man who used to meet with missionaries in the past but he hates how we get transferred around so much. He's willing to meet with us more now. Hopefully he goes somewhere. 

We saw Ms Ro. Taught her about the church's addiction recovery program. She wants her daughter to go through it. She really needs the ARP... Yeah... Tuesday was pretty normal.

-Wednesday-

This is where the blessings really started. Last year the church had a worldwide broadcast about missionary work. They did the same thing this year. The Diels drove us to Madison for the broadcast. In the broadcast the members of the Executive Missionary Council gave great trainings on missionary work. Elder Bednar had especially good comments. Besides all the trainings, they made significant changes to the daily schedule and key indicators. 

Here's an example of the old schedule. 

6:30 am, wake up and exercise (30 minutes)

7:30 am, breakfast 

8:00 am, personal study 

9:00 am, companion study 

10:00 am, begin working

9:00 pm, return home and plan for the next day 

10:30 pm, go to bed

That was the set schedule we lived by. There wasn't really any changing it. Now, they've given us the freedom to customize our daily schedule. They still want certain things done before 10:00 am, and they still want us up at the same time, but they now let us decide in what order the other things are accomplished. They've also moved planning to the morning. They want us to do companion study at a time that's less effective for proselyting. Here's the schedule Elder Kloepfer and I customized. 

6:30 am, wake up

7:00 am, exercise (30 minutes)

7:30 am, breakfast and preparing for the day

8:30 am, personal study

9:30 am, planning

10:00 am, began working

12:30 pm, companion study

9:00 pm, return home. Write in journal. Go to bed. 

I'll tell you now that the new schedule is a a lot easier on us. I feel like I have more energy to do things. I get more sleep now. It's great! 

Now, onto the key indicators changes. We used to have to report on 11 key keywords. Those were:

-Investigators baptized

-Investigators confirmed

-Investigators with a baptismal date 

-Investigators to church 

-Member present lessons 

-Other lessons taught 

-Progressing investigators 

-Referrals received

-Referrals contacted 

-New investigators 

-Lessons taught to recent converts and less actives 

There were a few mission key indicators that we just reported on in this mission. Those were:

-Service hours 

-Lessons in a members home 

-Member referrals 

-How many people you talked to (TWE's) 

There used to be more mission ones but they've gotten rid of them over the months. We had to report on 15 numbers every week. But with the changes, the Missionary Executive Council knocked it down to 4:

-Investigators confirmed 

-Investigators with a baptismal date 

-Investigators to church 

-New investigators 

That's it. Only those 4. No more mission key indicators either. The Executive Council threw down on having "too many key indicators". That means the TWE Accountability is gone too. Yay! :)

After the training the Diels took us to the Downtowner again. I hope that becomes a weekly tradition. Later on we saw Miss B and taught her the Plan of Salvation. She's doing well as a new member. Right after we finished the lesson we got a call from Sis Terrell, asking if we could go to the hospital and give a friend of hers a blessing. She's a less active from another unit. Elder Diel gave her the blessing. She really appreciated it. 

We went to Lake Iola in the dark. Normally there's no one there in the day, but for some reason there were a lot of people there at night. It was odd. But it was the beginning of many odd blessings we would experience over the next few days. 

-Thursday-

We went to the Clearinghouse with the Diels. They really hit it off with some of the staff. Like, abnormally well. Hopefully they'll become investigaters soon. 

Later on in the day we picked up some potentials we haven't had in a long time. One was a nice guy who has his head on straight and wants to talk with us, which is rare. He said we could come by anytime. 

We did Food 4 R Souls again. This time I served cheesy potatoes and chicken noodle soup. 

We finished the night with a less active named Ms Do. We tried working with her in the past but she was always impossible to catch. We got her this time! We had a decent lesson with her. She's a convert of about 4 years. She's not terribly confident in her gospel knowledge but she wants to come back to church. She wants us to visit more often. Maybe this means we'll be able to work with her now.

-Friday-

We spent some time trying people out in the country on Friday. After we burned through the list of people we picked out without any answers, we felt impressed to go further into the country to try a member named Sis Cha. Her husband lives in the nursing home we call bingo at. He doesn't come to bingo though. She lives in a nice home way out in the country. Dad would absolutely love the place. When we got to the home she invited us right in and talked for a bit. After some chatting, it became apparent that she needed a blessing due to her recent trials. So we gave her a blessing. A rather strong one too. It really helped her out. 

Later on we had a 2.5 hour dinner with the branch president, President Penrod. It was so long because we spent a lot of time talking about missionary work in the branch. It was a good visit.

-Saturday-

We saw Bro L again. Read with him like always. He's sort of progressing. 

The big blessing of Saturday was Sister Staker. Her husband is in the branch presidency. She called us in the middle of the day and said "Hey! I'm shopping now. What do you guys want?" To which we replied something like "Oh! Thank you! We really don't need much though." Then she said something like "I have 2 boys that served missions. I know how hungry you guys get. What do you guys need? Eggs? Milk?" She went on to basically squeeze a shopping list that had to have been worth about $100 out of us. She asked us question after question about what we wanted and needed and wouldn't be satisfied until she knew our cabinets were full. She bought so much food for us. 6 fancy bags full. It took 10 minutes to put it all away. Milk, eggs, bacon, carrots, strawberries, raspberries, bread, pancakes, syrup, sales, dressings, a pineapple, and several other things too. She even got us paper towels. I've never had a member treat us like that. It was quite the act of kindness. #Blessed 

-Sunday-

We had an abnormal church service. President and Sister Brough came and spoke in Sacrament. They did a great job. Then they attended gospel principles and guess who teaches that... It's us! We got to teach a gospel principles class with the mission president and his wife there. It actually went very well. I was surprised. The Brough's taught the members more in the 3rd hour. It was combined. The Brough's are quite the characters. 

After church I made breakfast for lunch. I cooked one of the bacon packages Sister Staker gave us. Bacon is delicious. #Blessed. Later on we tried a couple formers we dropped a while ago because they never answered, but they answered this time and we set appointments for both of them. Yay! 

We finished the night by discussing part-member families with President Penrod. Yay! 

-> Small Plates <-

Here's a hymn that summarizes this week. 

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings; name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?

Count your many blessings; ev’ry doubt will fly,

And you will be singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,

Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold.

Count your many blessings; money cannot buy

Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.

So amid the conflict, whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged; God is over all.

Count your many blessings; angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Count your blessings;

Name them one by one.

Count your blessings;

See what God hath done.

Count your blessings;

Name them one by one.

Count your many blessings;

See what God hath done.

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Groceries from Sis Staker - Thank you!

Breakfast for dinner!