Serving in Kentucky: Diligence

August 15, 2016

Dear Family,

Let's see... We taught 2 lessons this week... And talked to 161 peeps on the streets... Not much is happening for us. We're not sure what we're doing wrong, if anything. We pushed through though.

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

We spent all day emailing and Facebooking. It's still weird I have Facebook. I messaged a few friends I haven't talked to in 16 months. It was nice to catch up.

Later that night when we began working we tried a few peeps, biked a few miles, and talked to a few peeps. Nothing solid happened.

-Tuesday-

I got to meet a man named L. Elder Williams met and taught him last week on exchange while I was in Indian Trails. We couldn't teach him this time because he was getting ready to leave but he said we're more than welcome to come back. He's a nice guy. If he's willing to talk with us, there's a chance for him.

Later we biked to the church in the rain for some Facebook pros. I messaged a few members.

Later that night we went to the Campbell's for dinner. They're a nice young couple that recently moved in the Ward. They fed us some of the best KFC I've ever had. Normally I'm not a KFC guy but I guess anything's good when you've been biking all day. We gave them the Brother of Jared Challenge and they loved it. They're willing to try it.

We finished that night biking around trying peeps. A few of those peeps were in a rich apartment complex where the manager won't kick us out because he believes what we're doing is right and also because his mother does the same thing for her church. That's a blessing to have an apartment manager not get mad at us.

We finished the night biking home from the top of the area to the bottom. We biked past Southeast Christian Church. It's the biggest church in the mission and it's in our area. That place had 8 parking lots.

There are several passages in our area that we call "Narnia Passages". That's because they take us from one part to another that would normally take us longer to travel. Kinda like a wormhole. These passages aren't paved or anything. They go through trees and have been made by enough people walking through them to make a path. They are great shortcuts for bike missionaries. There's a big one that takes us from Southeast Christian Church to our apartment.

-Wednesday-

Service day. We went to the Habitat for Humanity (DI) and helped out there. We labeled and sorted some doors. They invited us to Texas Roadhouse later that night. Of course we accepted!

After we finished there we spent some time to prepare our training on how to "find through Facebook" for Thursday's district meeting. After that, we did our service at the Methodist Church. I helped make icee's this time.

When we finished service there we went to Texas Roadhouse. It was amazing getting free Texas Roadhouse. I got fillet medallions. They were heavenly.

-Thursday-

We gave our training on "Facebook finding" at district meeting. It went decently. Because Facebook is so new the training was a little vague but we tried to help the district the best we could. Hopefully someone got an idea or two from all our rambling.

We spent the day like usual. Biking who knows how many miles, trying who knows how many people, and talking with who knows how many people. Towards the end of the day we were in a rich neighborhood and a lady gave us some water. I love people who give us water.

Half way through our nightly planning, a member needed help locking the church up. Our church here uses digital card keys that you hold up to the door to unlock. For some reason though, everyone's cards but ours has stopped working. So they needed help locking the church back up. After we did that, the member that drove us up bought us McFlurries at the McDonald's next door.

-Friday-

This was an adventurous day. There's 4 areas in our district and there's an area where all 4 borders meet, kinda like the 4 Corners in Utah. We received a referral that was in the 4 Corners area. Everyone kept saying it was in our area even after we proved it wasn't. So to satisfy everyone, we biked 10 miles to this mysterious referral through rich neighborhoods, ghettos, a jungle, over a fence, and through someone's backyard to try this person. That whole hour long process got us a... return appointment... We told the missionaries who should have been working with this referral about that and they said they would go to it.

We had to bike from there to the church for missionary coordination. Another 10 miles. On the way back we stopped at a gas station and bought some soda and Gatorade. We were entirely exhausted when we got to the church.

Missionary Coordination itself, went well. Our Ward mission leader, Bro Haws, is a good guy. He's a dental student (like literally everyone else here) but still makes time to magnify his calling. He's a good mission leader. He asked us to come up with some ways the Ward could help. As hard as Elder Williams and I have been trying, we haven't been seeing the success we've wanted. It's not just us, the Sisters are struggling too. Bro Haws is going to get the Ward to help.

We finished the day dead on the ground in our apartment.

-Saturday-

We did our weekly planning. We had a long conversation about anything we're possibly doing wrong that would explain for the lack of success. We concluded that neither of us are disobedient but we do have plenty of human flaws that we'll work on. Nothing huge, just small weaknesses.

After the planning, we met with Eric. He was baptized a few months ago. He's going great. He loves the church and is there every week. We're working with him to prepare him for the higher priesthood. He's excited for that.

The rest of the day was spent on Facebook, messaging more members, and biking miles to try peeps. We tried PJ but he didn't answer. I hope he's not avoiding us.

-Sunday-

We had a fantastic sacrament service. Bishop Finer gave a great talk about Peter and what love for the Lord means. Our stake president, President Chadwick was the other speaker and he built on that by speaking about why we keep the commandments.

President Chadwick is a great guy. He's a convert to the church. He didn't tell his parents he joined until he was being sealed in the temple.

After church we had lunch with the Hatton's. They're a nice older couple. Their kids are all moved out. They've developed a special relationship with Eric. They gave him a car they have that they're not using. Now Eric won't have to walk to and from work.

By the time lunch was over and we finished our studies we saw our baptist friends. We found out they're really interested in family history. Our church has an awesome family history room in it and the baptists live just down the street from the church. We told them about it and they said they would love to check it out.

At the end of the night we did apple cider shots in celebration of this difficult week.

-> Small Plates <-

This is appropriate for this week.

Patience (PMG chapter 6)

”Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious. It is the ability to do God’s will and accept His timing. When you are patient, you hold up under pressure and are able to face adversity calmly and hopefully. Patience is related to hope and faith--you must wait for the Lord’s promised blessings to be fulfilled."

"You need patience in your everyday experiences and relationships, especially with your companion. You must be patient with all people, yourself included, as you work to overcome faults and weaknesses."

This week was a test of patience and diligence. I've noticed the Lord is masterful at crafting experiences that test your Christlike attributes. If you endure well, you'll receive a host of blessings, but if you don't endure well, you'll have to repeat a lesson.

-> Closing Remarks <-

I need a day to sleep.

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)