Bike & Car Probs

June 6, 2016

Dear Family,

Bike Probs and Car Probs

As the title suggests I had some bike problems this week. I found out I had glass in my tire. It caused 2 tubes to go flat in 1 day. I got it fixed now thankfully. The guys at Big O Bike Shop are amazing. We also had some dealings with our car but it wasn't as bad as the bike. Anyway, here's the week...

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-
We went to Evansville to play volleyball with other missionaries that were up there. There's a lot of missionaries in and close around Evansville and every P-Day they all get together for sports in the gym. This week we decided to join them. We usually can't go because that's too many miles for our car but we had extra miles this time so we went. It was fun. I enjoy volleyball. I enjoy it a lot more than basketball. Jes showed up to play too. He had a fun time.

When the fun was over it was time to head back and start working. The first thing we did was go to dinner with Sis Pepper and her brother who's the McCoy I mentioned last week. They fed us a good simple meal. Meat loaf, corn, mashed potatoes, green beans, and bread. It was all good. Sis Pepper's brother, who I will just call Bro McCoy is not a member but he loves seeing young guys like us doing the Lord's work. He really appreciates us. Last week when we helped him with the couches he said we were "brought up right."

Later that night we visited a couple LA's. They were siblings to an active member here in the ward. This was actually the first time we were able to get in with them. They run a landscaping business but since this was Memorial Day, they were off. They're Hispanic so Elder Salazar was the one that did all the talking.

-Tuesday-
We had interviews with President Brough. It went well. The senior couple in our district provided Moonlite for lunch afterwards! I was very happy :).

Right after interviews, Ms Sh texted us and asked if we could move her baptism back a week because she works on the 11th. We asked her what her hours were but she never responded. Throughout her investigation, she's had several baptismal dates and several baptismal interviews but she's never been able to make it for one reason or another. We took her text and lack of answering to be a very bad sign that something was wrong. We were also supposed to meet with Jes after interviews but he cancelled because he had to work. We still need to teach him most of the lessons and with how little time we have to do that it's very unlikely he'll make it to the 11th.

Speaking of Jes, I talked to President Brough about him missing church this week and he said he's still good to be baptized on the 11th. Normally he wouldn't, but President Brough knows them and knows Jes tried to make it to church. He missed this week because something in his apartment's electrical work caused the lights to spark and almost set on fire. He had to stay and deal with that. If that hadn't happened he would have made it to church.

Later on we had to take the car to the body shop to get a bunch of estimates on all the damage from me and previous missionaries. In order to fix everything that's damaged on the car, it would cost almost $8000. There's a lot of damage on our car. Most of its from previous missionaries.

We finished the day at splits helping Sis Reynolds move. Yay- more moving! It didn't take too long. She didn't have much stuff and we had a lot of guys this time. Yay- moving!

-Wednesday-
Since I'll be going to the bike area for an exchange this week, I thought it would be good to finally get my bike fixed. So I went to Big O Bike Shop and bought a couple tubes to replace the one that I popped a few weeks ago. After I got the tubes, I replaced the broken one, pumped the tire up, and it looked good. Then we left to work for the day.

We saw the old Tin's. We asked them how they liked church. They enjoyed it okay. It was the first time they went in years. They only went because their friends, the Craig's, were giving their farewell talks. I don't think we'll be able to reactivate them. They've lost too much of their testimony and knowledge of the BoM and the church. They young Tin's are still doing good. Bro Tin is still one of the nicest guys ever and his family is great too. They're still investigating. 

Later we had Missionary Coordination at the church. It's so nice to have support from the members. Afterwards we visited the Quintana's and they fed us ham sammiches and scrambled eggs with habanero sauce in them. I couldn't eat them. They hurt my mouth too much. I took 2 bites and I was done.

When we got home at the end of the day I realized my bike tire had gone flat again. I pumped it up but there was a hole in it. All my bike did all day was sit in the apartment. So I took that tube out. I opened the other one and pumped it up by itself to make sure there were no holes in it before I put it in the tire. It was good. No holes. I put it in, pumped it up, and there was a hole. I realized there had to have been some shards of glass in the tire that was popping my tubes. So I took it all apart again to find the glass but I couldn't. I looked everywhere but I didn't find it.

-Thursday-
I went to the bike area on exchange with Elder Gardenier. I had to use one of their bikes because mine was still out. For the first part of the day we helped Sis Reynolds with more moving. We were the only ones there this time. She bought us Papa Johns afterwards. Nothing much happened for the rest of the day. We biked around a lot and talked to a lot of people. We saw Sis Lindsey and read 4 Nephi with her. At the end of the day we got drinks and sat down. We were done.

-Friday-
Elder Gardenier and I biked around for the first part of the day. Did the same as yesterday. Talked to a lot of people. We exchanged back and talked about the exchange with the other guys. We found out Ms Sh is still good for the 11th thankfully. Well just have to do it at about 6 PM. We're still unsure about Jes. He's cancelled his appointments this week because of work and he doesn't answer his phone most of the time now.

After all that I took my bike to Big O Bike Shop to have it fixed. They took it apart more than I did but couldn't find the glass. They could tell by the holes it was glass and not some sort of installation error. After almost an hour they put it back together with a new tube in it, pumped it up, and it stayed pumped this time. The glass must have fallen out somewhere. They didn't charge me for the new tube.

Afterwards we were walking around in a neighborhood and we met this nice old lady named Lil. She invited us to sit down on her porch and talk with her for a while. She talked a lot about her flowers. She loves flowers. We sat there and talked about flowers and Jesus for about an hour. It was a nice break in the middle of the day. 

We finished the night at Victor & Maku's. Victor showed us his back shed where he keeps a lot of merchandise he sells on his website. He does a lot more than make graduation scarfs. He imports stuff from Africa and sells it in the US. He sells a lot of cool stuff: wood carvings, shirts, swords, masks, hats, bags, and other things. It's all 100% authentic African stuff because it's all imported straight from there.

-Saturday-
I don't have a whole lot to say about Saturday. It was all Spanish work. We saw the Gomez's. We saw Galo, and we saw the Quinta brothers, the guys we couldn't contact until Memorial Day. We finished the night at Bro Emmert's. He made BLT's and fries.

-Sunday-
The Craig's gave their last testimony in Fast and Testimony meeting. After church we went to the Fuqua's farm for lunch. Usually we have lunch at their house but for some reason they wanted to have it at the farm. While they were cooking, Elder Salazar was fishing and I got beat by a 10 year old in Sorry! They made hot dogs and burgers. They had a lot of chips to go with it. They also had corn on the cob.

Later that night we visited Bro Shelby. He's a recent convert. Usually we don't visit him because he's in the bike area but he wanted us to stop by, so we did. We played some card games and watched the new children's narrations of Bible videos the church made.

We finally got back in contact with Jes. We found out he's got jobs in Evansville and Owensboro. He went to church in Evansville this week. With how much he's working now, and with how little time we have, and with how much we still have to teach him it's very very unlikely he'll make it to the 11th. It's almost impossible.

-> Small Plates <-

In 1 Nephi 16 we read about Lehi's family's first experiences with the Liahona. In this chapter everyone's hunting tools break and it becomes hard to obtain food. This made everyone a little mad. In verse 18 we learn about the purpose of these trials. The Lord used these trials to teach Lehi and his family how the Liahona works. These trials gave them something to contrast with. They understood what it was like when the Liahona didn't work and they understood what it was like when it did work.
The Lord is still doing the same things today. Our trials are meant to train us to follow the "Liahona".  

In verse 29 we read the Liahona worked by faith AND diligence. Almost every time I heard about the Liahona before I've just heard it works by faith. It actually requires faith and diligence. Go ahead and give that some pondering :).

1 Nephi 17 contains another key scripture that defines why Laman and Lemuel are so screwed up. It's verse 45. Here Nephi says they were "past feeling" that they couldn't feel the word of God. I thought the wording "feel the word of God" was interesting. That implies you need the Spirit to work on you in order for you to gain a testimony. You can't just read the word of God. You have to "feel" it too. But if you're past feeling, you're going to have a bad time.

What's wrong with Laman and Lemuel? See 1 Nephi 17:45 Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder.

Well, that was this week and some of my favorite notes from what I learned this week. Thank you all so much! Thanks for the flings. I'll probably get them today. Bye! :)

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

The end of a day,

P-day in Evansville

Wall art