Success

August 29, 2016

Dear Family,

We're finally coming out of our drought. We taught a couple lessons this week and got a baptismal date. We also have 5 members who have possible referrals for us. I forgot how much fun it was to teach lessons. 

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

We had a rather depressing P-Day. The fair was going on in Louisville and everyone had a way there except us so we spent a majority of the day at the church... #BestDayEver 

I went to Sport Clips for the first time for a haircut. Because it was my first time they upgraded my haircut to the "MVP Experience" for free. It was pretty nice. They cut my hair, washed it, massaged my face, massaged my head, and massaged my back. It was rather refreshing. 

We went to the Haws for dinner. Bro Haws is the Ward Mission Leader and yes, he's a dental student. We had a great meal with them and gave them the Brother of Jared Challenge. They loved it and accepted the challenge. 

-Tuesday-

Started with a normal morning. We studied, went on Facebook for a bit, and had lunch. We started going through our Ward roster meaning we knock all the doors of the members we don't know. We also started "splashing" around these members homes. "Splashing" is a term someone came up with a while ago. It means that after you knock on a door, you knock on a certain number of the houses directly around it and spend some time in the area trying to find people on the streets. It's a good finding method because it's diverse enough you won't go insane with it, it prevents you from burning through your plans too quickly by going from one person immediately to the next, and it allows you to possibly reach more people in the area. 

Later on we had dinner with the Crandalls. They live right next door to the Haws in the same apartment building and yes, Bro Crandall is a dental student. We had a great meal with them too. We also gave them the Brother of Jared Challenge and they easily accepted it. 

So... bad news... We found out that Eric, the recent convert who became a priest recently and received a car from some members, got his car stolen Monday night. He made it 8 days with that thing. The members who gave him the car are working with him, the cops, and the insurance company to resolve the matter. 

-Wednesday-

Service day. Went to Re-Store. That's the name of the Habitat for Humanity we go to. We helped move around a bunch of Christmas stuff. 

Later we went to the Methodist Church and did our thing there. They served breakfast this time. 

We finished the night with a small Facebook discussion with a potential. He told us his difficulties with school and we tried showing him how the Gospel can help with that. He didn't respond much when we started talking about Jesus so I'm not sure how he took it. 

-Thursday-

Interviews! I got to talk with President and Sister Brough. I had pretty normal interviews with them. Nothing extraordinary about them. Sister Brough gave me a ton of candy. Elder Patten trained on using members on Facebook while interviews were taking place. 

After interviews we did some quick service for a member's next door neighbor. They just had us move some light boxes in a U-Haul. Afterwards they gave us some money for Little Caesars. That's what we had for lunch. 

Later on, we had dinner with the Simmonds. They live in the same apartment complex as the Haws and the Crandalls and yes, Bro Simmonds is a dental student. They fed us and we gave them the Brother of Jared Challenge. After dinner, we did some finding in the southern part of our area and found someone who was actually interested. Their name was Ms D. She told us how she was supposed to meet with missionaries a while back but for some reason that never happened. We set up a time for Friday morning. 

-Friday-

Started off teaching Ms D the first half of L1. We had to teach her outside because she's a single lady. It was extremely hot outside so she asked that we finish the lesson later on. 

We did our weekly planning. The sisters called and wanted us to give one of their investigators a blessing so we biked down to their house and gave them a blessing. This investigator is working hard to quit smoking and drinking so they greatly appreciated the blessing. 

After the blessing Bro Campbell dropped Chick-Fil-A off at our place for dinner. It was amazing! We tried to meet with Ms D again but she wouldn't answer for some reason. 

-Saturday-

Started the day with missionary coordination with Bro Haws. After that we helped this guy put his bed together. He self-referred himself on Mormom.org to get help with his moving. By the time we called him he already finished the moving but still needed help putting his bed together. So we went over and put his bed together. While we were doing that his son was asking us about the church. He had some good Q's. He got a good introduction to the church from us. His mom joined the church a few years ago. That's how he knew about us. 

Later on we tried a new referral. The Spanish Elders contacted him first and gave him to us. 

-Sunday-

We had another good church service. During church we had 4 members come up to us and say they have people they're working on. We now have 5 possible member referrals to work with. I'm sure at least one of them will be an investigator. 

Later after church we went to dinner with the Fiets. No Bro Fiet is not a dental student. He's old, rich, and retired. They had some family over so we didn't get a chance to teach anything. 

We finished the night by trying a few people. 

-> Small Plates <-

Elder Williams helped me learn a powerful lesson about goals recently that I'm pretty sure I haven't shared yet. At least I can't remember if I've shared this so if I have, sorry. 

Elder Williams and I are very similar people. In fact, it wasn't until about 2 weeks into our companionship we finally found something we could disagree on. 

He LOVES camping and I HATE camping. 

Eventually our camping discussion led to our experiences in the BSA. We're both Eagle Scouts. I told him how I didn't care for anything in the BSA except the title of Eagle Scout. Both of us did the required amount of work to earn our Eagles but there's a very significant difference between us. 

He was in the BSA to learn, and I was there to get my Eagle. I didn't realize how valuable of an experience the BSA could have been until a couple of weeks ago. They teach you so much as you go through the merit badges. I missed out on so much knowledge. 

This taught me a profound lesson about goals. I learned from the BSA that too much of an emphasis on goals (like my goal to be an Eagle Scout) WILL get in the way of the vast amount of valuable knowledge you could obtain on the way. Elder Williams took the time to learn from the BSA. All I cared about was the Eagle. 

I feel like this is a trap that is all over the place in this life. There's always something you want in life. Eagle, Baptisms, House, Life, etc. There's a danger in goals. It's almost too easy to forget about everything except your goal. It's almost too easy to only care about your goals. 

Over my mission I've decided to have a goal to lean about everything I can. To slow down. To observe what's happening. To learn. I'm convinced that Heavenly Father has thousands of learning moments for us each day and I want to learn from as many as those as possible. But I won't catch them if I'm not paying attention or if I'm occupied by something else. 

-> Closing Remarks <-

I'm so happy to finally be coming out of our drought. Thanks for all the prayers!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)