Serving in Kentucky: Owensboro is Fun!

February 15, 2016

Dear Family,

Here's last weeks email. (the Church server worldwide was down last Monday for a week)

We've had a lot of fun covering all of Owensboro with the three of us.Surprisingly, and thankfully, we all get along great. We're all able to teach together really well too, so that's a plus. This was a busy week full of lessons and meals. Here's the breakdown.

Monday - my birthday!
We had a fun P-Day. Something new we tried was Disc Golf. It plays just like golf but with special frisbees. Instead of a hole, you try to throw the disc into a chain cage thing. It's actually a lot of fun. I did pretty good for my first time ever.

Tuesday
We started off seeing a former named Mr F. He's Spanish so it was another lesson where only Elder Passmore could speak. It's always weird having Spanish only lessons because I can't contribute much. Then we met with a lady named Ms C that we met a few days ago. We had a great first lesson with her and she accepted the invitation to be baptized. I'm 10 months in and I don't even know what it's like to baptize a convert. To be honest, it's starting to bother me. I really hope I get one soon. But that's not going to keep me from continuing forward. I'll always work hard. We had dinner at a Spanish members and then we went on splits with the members. Passmore and I went with Bro. Smith to a LA named Ms D while Gough went with the ward mission leader elsewhere. Ms D fed us too. That's 2 dinners in one night. We had a great reading lesson with her. Bro. Smith looks exactly like Santa. We finished the day listening to a talk called "Why 1820?" It answers why the Lord waited until 1820 to restore the church.

Wednesday
The first guy we contacted on Wednesday asked us why the Lord waited until 1820. That question is highly uncommon. Elder Gough's been out 20 months and he's only got that question a small handful of times. What are the odds we get that question the day after we listened to that talk? Later, we visited a member who had a neighbor who had the bunnies. We got the hold them. Later we contacted an old Catholic who's known missionaries for 40 years. He knew a lot of our beliefs. And he asked us "why 1820". What are the odds to get probably the least common question ever twice in the same day? And the day after we listened to that talk? It was crazy. We had a nice long discussion with him but he's comfortable in his church. We ate dinner at the Inmans. They're your typical retired couple. Bro. Inman used to own some college out in Utah. They fed us fettuccini Alfredo. We finished with meeting the Scudders. They're recent converts who were baptized back in November. They're super strong.

Thursday
We did more service giving food out at a homeless shelter. Then we did weekly planning which took longer than normal because we were planning for two areas. Then we saw Mr C. He's got a baptismal date for March 5th. He's 17 and a pretty funny guy. And he really wants to join the church. We finished the day with eating at Bro. Swope's house. Bro. Swope is the strongest recent convert I've ever met. He's only been a member since last April or so. If no one told me he was a recent convert I would have guessed he's been a member most of his life. We had a good lesson at his house. He has a little daughter who is the nicest little girl I've met out here. She loves the missionaries.

Friday
We had zone meeting in Evansville. It was pretty good. There were a lot of trainings and a lot of good things to learn. However, the AP's training was over the top. After the meeting, we went on exchange with Elder Peck, one of the zone leaders while Elder Gough went with the other zone leader. Elder Peck's been out for 14 months. We had a fun time with him. He's a good guy. We taught a few lessons with him. We finished the day with a whole lot of contacting. I hit another contacting milestone today. It took me and the Lord 10 months of working together to destroy my fear of contacting. And tonight I was able to contact about 10 people by myself. It was a cool experience.

Saturday
We picked up a former named Mr E. He's a Spanish guy who speaks great English. He fully believes in prophets and basically taught us half of the restoration. He even quoted Amos. No one quotes Amos. After his lesson we gave another recent convert, Randy, a blessing. Then we exchanged back and went to missionary coordination at Bro. Emmert's house. He fed us a lot of ice cream.

Sunday
We had a great church service and I got to help pass again, but it was cut an hour early because of the storm on its way. It snowed an inch in about 10 minutes. After church we visited the Q family and showed them my Christmas dance. They liked it. We ate dinner at the Fedor's and watched Hope of God's Light. After the video they talked about people we can visit and we got a few referrals. It was pretty cool.

Well that was this week. I really like it here in Owensboro. It's a lot of fun. I like staying busy. Thank you so much for the pizza tonight and for the box I won't be able to get until tomorrow because people are stupid. :p Have an awesome week!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)