Serving in Kentucky: April 2017

April 3, 2017

Dear Family,

This week had my 5th General Conference on the mission. How did I get 5? Well... My first week in the MTC was a General Conference week. Then there was October 2015, April 2016, and October 2016. Originally, I should have been home for the April 2017 one, but the church extended the MTC time, which wound up extending my mission by 1 week. That 1 week was enough to push me 5 days past my 2 year mark (which was April 1st, 2017) and to my 5th General Conference.

Isn't that fun!?

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

This was my last normal P-Day of the mission. For the most part, it was the same as the others. Clothes, cleaning, shopping, napping, etc.

Towards the end of the day we were leaving to go to work when someone sitting in front of our neighbor's home yelled and asked if we were Mormon. I replied with "Yes, we are." He said "Alright! I know a lot about you!" Right then I was thinking "Oh no... He's about to throw a bunch of anti at me." (Elder McIntosh was in the car at this point. I was backing him out.) I replied with "Really? How so?" He got up, walked over to me, and began to tell me about all of his experiences with Sister Jensen and Sister Webb in Charlestown almost 2 years ago. He was an investigator who had been to church many times, had great fellowship with members, and almost got baptized. He didn't get baptized because he had some trials going on in his life that kept him from taking that step. He also told us about all he knew about the BoM. He knew a good amount because he had actually read some of it. His name was Mr May.

This interaction ended with him becoming a potential for us and potential referral his missionaries in Jeffersonville. (He was in Scottsburg to visit some friends. He lives in Jeffersonville.)

-Tuesday-

I went to Bingo for the last time. Elder McIntosh will be taking over the cards next time. With Bingo, the senior missionary of the area deals with the cards while the junior missionary of the area helps Mary play. When I got here, Kloepfer did the cards and I helped Mary. When Kloepfer left, I did the cards and McIntosh helped Mary. Now that I'm leaving, McIntosh will take over the cards. Yay!

Later on we ran into a LA who lives right around the corner from us that we didn't know about. I don't remember his name. He joined a few years ago but left because he didn't understand anything. He's currently looking for a church to attend. Speaking of that, that's something several LA's in this area are doing right now. They're looking for a church. The first thing I always want to say to these people is "Hey! I know a great church to attend! It's one you're already a member of! Services are 10 am Sunday morning!"

After our chat with him, we saw Mr May again. Found out his nickname and real name. He wasn't doing well because a childhood friend of his died Tuesday morning. He was dealing with that. I hope missionaries start working with him again.

We ended the night at Subway. We used the card we got at Zone Conference a couple weeks ago. Let me explain... Zone Conference is every transfer. For zone conferences, every companionship with a car is supposed to clean their car for inspections. Not just clean, but also make sure all the fluids are full, tires are good, lights work, etc. What's the incentive for doing all this? A $15 Subway card. They give one to the companionship with the cleanest car. Guess what!... We won a couple weeks ago! That was the first time I ever got cleanest car at a zone conference! It was my last zone conference tool! It was nice getting free Subway.

-Wednesday-

Not much happened Wednesday. We found out early that Elder McIntosh is going to be the new DL because Elder Irwin's area is being taken over by the Hanover sisters. McIntosh and I had a good discussion about being DL, how to give good trainings, the purpose of meetings, etc. He's a little nervous about it. He didn't want to be DL. I think he's going to do great. He, himself. is a convert so he should be about to teach other missionaries what works well and what doesn't because of his personal experiences.

We saw Mr A. Read with him and talked about video games. I think it's funny that video games have been the catalyst for me to relate to 60% of my companions, and several of my investigators and members. We found out Mr D got out of jail. Apparently he got out because he was still in school. I guess still being in school when you're 18 will get you out of jail.

-Thursday-

Last service day of the mission! We moved a lot of cans at the Clearinghouse! We did work! The shelves were pretty empty when we got there. When we left they were packed. Woo!

When we got home my bike box came so I spent a lot of the day packing my bike into it. I had to break the chain off because it got impossibly tangled. And it was old with 1000+ miles on it.

I went to F4RS for the last time! Yay! I'm really happy about that! The food there was good. They had some beef noodle dish with green beans, fake mashed taters, and peanut butter cake. As we left, everyone said the usual "See ya next week!" To which I happily replied "Alright! See ya next week!" Knowing all too well that I wouldn't be seeing them next week.

I'm evil. I know. :D

We finished the night with Sis S. We didn't tech anything. She was busy criticizing the plans for her new house. She's building a new house behind her trailer and apparently, the contractor messed the plans up. She kept making negative comments about how the contractor's trying to cheat her and I kept trying to give her a more positive view of things. It didn't work. Yeah... She's.... Something.

-Friday-

Last district meeting!!! Yes!! Elder Irwin had me give the training. What did I train on? Well... It wasn't really a typical training where I would teach other missionaries how to be better missionaries. I sat in front of everyone. Everyone was in a semicircle around me, and I facilitated a gospel conversation. It was more of a Sunday School lesson. I wrote down how long everyone else had been out on the chalk board and I talked about the things that I was focusing on when I was at their points. I feel like I did 40% of the talking. The other 60% was everyone else. Everyone participated. It was a lot of fun! It was very relaxed too. We talked a lot about studies, humility, obedience, and finding answers to Q's. I didn't plan on talking about any of that. I simply planned to have a gospel conversation, and let the Spirit dictate the subject.

Not much else happened for the rest of the evening. I dropped my bike off at the postal store. We had 3 appointments for the night. 2 of them fell through and we wound up teaching nothing at the 3rd. The 3rd was the H family. J and A were there. Occasionally they'll get distracted too easily. This time, they were distracted by some YouTuber. It was fun, but nothing was taught. Yup...

-Saturday-

This was the big 24 month/2 year mark! I didn't know what to think about it. I feel like it came so quickly. But at the same time, it took forever to get here. This was the first day of my 5th General Conference!

We went to the morning session which was awesome. Then we went to Subway for lunch. Then we went to the afternoon session which was awesome except for the idiots during the sustainings again. Then we had a light dinner with the Diels. Then a brownie and ice cream party with President Penrod, Bro Morgan, and Elder Diel before the priesthood session. Pres Penrod looked haggard. He had worked 14-16 hour shifts every day this week. He's the CEO at the YMCA. He was happy to finally sit down for Priesthood. The priesthood session was awesome! I learned a few things throughout the whole day! I love general conference on the mission. These are some of my favorite days.

-Sunday-

We had a very simple Sunday. Watching the other two sessions of General Conference was most of what we did. President Penrod was present for both. At the end of the second, he thanked me for serving in Scottsburg and I thanked him for being a good branch president. I've loved serving around him.

The General Conference sessions were fantastic like usual! I learned a good bit. I won't be sending notes home this time. I'm glad I got to finish my mission with conference. I can rest and learn so easily when I'm listening to church leaders.

After the sessions, I had my last dinner with the Diels. They made potato cheese soup and biscuits. Potato cheese and clam chowder are the most satisfying soups in the world. In was delicious.

I look forward to seeing you all!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)