Revelation

June 27, 2016

Dear Family,

This was a good week. We're starting to teach more lessons. I had a few sweet planning sessions with some strong revelation. It was 100 degrees outside most of the time. Oddly, I was happier than normal. I've noticed lately that I've been generally happier than normal. Everything's easier when I'm happy.

-> Large Plates <-
-Monday-
We washed the car for an upcoming zone conference. Later we went bowling with Jason. We bowled 5 games. Towards the end I was just throwing balls down the alley to get it over with. My hand hurt so much. Then we shopped. I found the best smelling air fresheners in existence. I found Gain-scented car air fresheners. It might be weird but that's my favorite scent in the world.

Something I've gained an appreciation for over my mission is air fresheners. When I first got to Corydon, the apartment had a strong cigarette smell from the next-door neighbors. So Elder Lynch and I bought a couple of those Air Wick fresheners you plug into the wall and that fixed the cigarette smell quite easily. Ever since then I've had air fresheners in all my apartments and all the cars I've driven in. And now they make Gain-scented fresheners :).

Later that night we met with Ms H. J was there. J is one of the "Belders" most-progressing investigators and he happens to be best friends with Ms H. Crazy right? We also taught a new investigator named Ms Mel. We met her a few weeks ago and finally got in with her. It was pretty late so we just introduced the BoM to her. She liked it and wants to read it.

-Tuesday-
We saw Mr G. We're probably going to have to drop him because he's not really progressing. He's not willing to make any big commitments because he believes the church he's going to is the one for him. Later on we tried a referral from the "Belders" named Tri. We thought it was a girl. We went to the house, knocked on the door, and a little girl answered. We asked if her mom was there (we thought it would have been Tri). She said "No, but Snoop is." Then this tall guy who looked exactly like a young Snoop Dogg came to the door. We asked him if Tri was there and he said "Oh yeah, that's me!" So now we have a potential that looks exactly like Snoop Dogg. 

For splits, Elder Murdoch and Gabbi came out with me to see Des. She fed us per usual. We read out of the BoM with her.

-Wednesday-
In Owensboro it's very normal to meet a person who lives in the "Bike" area. We send a few referrals back and forth between us and the Belders. Although lately, they've been going through their area book and referring people who live in our area. They had a lot. Almost 40 of them. So naturally, we have 40 referrals to work through. We spent almost the entire day contacting them. We tried about 30 of them and found out a few of them had moved.

Later that night we taught the Goms about developing a stronger testimony. We're trying to get them to read as a family more. We ate dinner at the Bishop's house and shared a message about Charity and Missionary Work.

-Thursday-
We had to drive to Tell City to begin an exchange with the District leader who is Elder Blake, now that Elder Gough is gone. Elder Blake was the missionary who trained Elder Salazar. I got to take Elder Blake to Owensboro. We had a pretty good day. We talked to a few people and went to the Swopes for service, dinner, and a lesson. In the lesson I asked everyone to share a favorite scripture out of the BoM and Ms Swope was the first one to get hers. It was one she read that morning in her personal study. My goal for the lesson was to point out experiences we all had with the BoM. That's how we know it's true: by experiences. I committed them to continue reading and to ask God of its truth so they can gain more experience. Hopefully this'll help her progress.

As we drove home we had a sweet lightning storm over Owensboro. There was no rain. The sky was almost like a strobe light.

Here's a cool experience. Elder Blake and I stopped at the church for a couple minutes in the middle of the day. When we were there the phone started ringing. We picked it up and it was a local pastor who wanted a representative from the church to come to a multi-faith event they're having at their church and talk about our church. This particular pastor recently visited several church history places like the Sacred Grove and had a fantastic experience. I talked to the bishop and he's going to have Bro Shepherd do it. He's done a lot of stuff like that before. What are the odds that someone would call the church phone which doesn't have an answering machine at a time when we happened to be in the church?

-Friday-
We had Zone Conference in Evansville. President Brough, the Zone Leaders, and the Assistants all gave great trainings. This was one of the best conferences I've had in a while. President Brough trained on doing missionary work by the Spirit. The Zone Leaders trained on planning by the spirit. And the Assistants trained on becoming who God wants you to become. I got some great notes out of the meeting. By the time we drove back, we had an hour to work.

-Saturday-
We helped Bro Fedor move a friend of his in Owensboro. We left a big impression on him. He's a lot more open to the church now.

Later we had a 4 hour weekly planning session. A lot of it was spent talking about certain investigators. We actually got some sweet revelation on how to help. We have this epic 3-part lesson plan to teach repentance using the addiction-recovery videos. I realized when I first got here, that their faith needed to be worked on. Now that that's fixed, we need to help with repentance. When that's over, they should be ready for Baptism. Theoretically. :)

Later that night we saw Ms H again. J was there too. We shared 2 Nephi 27:23 For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith. This is Bro Swope's favorite scripture. They liked it. We're working with H to get her reading regularly. Her kids are reading. She's not.

-Sunday-
The "Belders" gave talks. After church we went to the Fuquas for food. They over-fed us per usual. Then we biked around in 100 degree weather because we're trying to save miles. We met with a man named Ha. He's from Nepal. We met him a few days ago. He's Hindu but he doesn't completely claim the religion. He loves learning about religions and applying his favorite parts. He taught us about Hinduism. They have like 2 or 3 million gods. They worship things that provide life like the sun, the air, trees, ground, etc. It was actually a cool learning experience. We introduced the BoM to him and he really wanted to read it.

We finished the night eating dinner at the Fedors. I was officially over-fed.

-> Small Plates <-

Well, there wasn't anything this week that made me go "Oh, that's cool!! I've never thought of that before!" But lately I've been thinking a lot about personal revelation. This week I had several personal revelations. I feel like it comes over time. Most of the time I don't feel like I'm being led by the Spirit but this week was a little different. I'm not sure what the difference was. Maybe I just needed more revelation than normal for this week or maybe I'm finally learning how to receive personal revelation.

I've come to notice that sometimes it's extremely hard to recognize personal revelation, at least for me it is. It seemed a thousand times easier back in scriptural times. Why? I think it was because there were less distractions back then. I have so much to think about. Everyone does. It can be difficult to give room for the Spirit.

-> Closing Remarks <-

You all have a fantastic week!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Evansville Zone Conference