Another Good Week

March 14, 2016

Dear Family,

Monday
During our weekly visit to Chick-Fil-A, I saw an old man who looked EXACTLY like Grandpa Cox. It was unexpected. Then we golfed and I got my worst score yet at 14. Later, we ate dinner with the Inmans and showed them the new Easter video. It's the one with people from all over the world talking about the resurrection. Next, we read with C and L. They're on track to be baptized but they have word of wisdom issues with tea and coffee so we'll see where that goes.

Tuesday
We met with Co and read with him. We found out he's got some stuff to work on so we're going to have to push his baptism back too. We set another time with him for the next day as we were only there for about 15 minutes. Later that night, we went on splits and I went with Bro. Smith and his daughter B. We tried a few LA's but didn't get in with any. One of them happened to be B's 4th grade teacher. We spoke with her and we found out she's LA because she never read the BoM and never had a testimony. She said she "grew up and found who she was". It makes me sad when I find someone who used to have a testimony but lost it because they found something else or got anti'd. And there are also those who never read the BoM. I guess my point is, don't go less active. If you're a member of the Lord's one and only true church, STAY ACTIVE! I have met less actives who have actual reasons and are great people. I love working with those people and getting them back to church. I'm sad for those less actives who basically apostatize. Don't do that!

Wednesday
We started off TWEing in the pouring rain. Then we met with some less actives. We met for the first time last week and got to know them better. They were your typical old Kentucky couple who are very kind and can talk your ear off. A skill I've had to pick up out here is to tell people I need to leave a half hour before I actually need to leave because it'll take them that long to finish. These LA's today talked, and talked, and talked, and talked, and talked. They didn't even breathe. They just kept taking for an hour straight. It was a good time though. We got to know them better and we invited them to read the BoM. They still love the BoM which is a good sign with a LA. Later, we met with Miss Al in the library with Miss B. 
She's progressing great. She actually wants to be baptized. Miss Bethany is good at fellow-shipping her. They've become great friends. Right after Miss Al, we met with Colton in the library. We found out about even more stuff so we don't know when he's going to get baptized. He still likes the church and meeting with us. We had a good L3 with him. We finished the day showing the Easter video to the Capeners.

Thursday
We had zone meeting in Evansville. There were some good trainings there. I really like big missionary meetings like this because I learn a lot from them. After the meeting, Elder Passmore and I went to Jasper IN on exchange with Elder Neal. Jasper is where Elder Walker was before I got him in Campbellsville. We had a good time in Jasper. Half way up there, we realized Elder Gunnel had the keys to the car with him in Owensboro so we had to go the whole exchange with no car. It actually turned out better for us, because Mr T, an 18 year-old member, drove us around and stayed in lessons with us all day. It was really cool to get that support from him. We ate dinner at the Ahners and Sis. Ahner gave me some soap she made. We finished the day reading Jacob 5 with a returning member. I actually love that chapter. 

Friday
We started TWEing for 4 hours. Why did why did we do that? Well... We originally planned 2 hours, but the Owensboro Elders got caught up so they wound up being two hours late. We walked two hours from the apartment and two hours back. We got back at the apartment right when they got there. We contacted 2 less actives in that 4 hour walk. I've actually contacted a lot of less actives in my mission. They've all been nice people too. We drove an hour back to Owensboro and helped a LA sweep and mop her floor. She had a nifty $200 dollar mop imported from 2020. It worked really well. Later we met with Miss Al but Miss B
wasn't able to come. We read with her and answered more of her Q's. 

Saturday
Not a whole lot happened for the first part of the day. We had the first session of Stake Conference today. Before we went, Bro Shelby fed us dinner. He's a good cook. The talks given were all really great talks. I haven't had a Stake Conference that good in a while.

Sunday
Mr R drove us to the second session of Stake Conference. The talks were good again. After the conference, we ate at the Fuqua's who always know how to kill us with food. Them we met with a man named Ce we contacted a few days ago. We introduced the BoM to him and he seemed genuinely interested. We set up another time for next week. Then we went to the Fedor's for dinner. Miss B was there and she brought Miss Al. Meals in members homes are rare. It was good we were able to do that. We showed them the Easter video.

That was this week. It was another good week in the mission. Nothing extraordinary happened like teaching 6 Muslims or getting eaten by dogs but it was still fun. My favorite part was the exchange in Jasper. I really liked seeing Elder Walker's old area. 

Loves!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)