Blessings

Sept 12, 2016

Dear Family,

This week was great. We saw a lot of blessings this week. The members were supportive, the investigator lessons were great, it was a fun week. Mr V and his family are our most solid investigators right now. The ward loves them. 

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

I decided to try something new this week. I tried living off of nothing but fruits, veggies, and chocolate milk. It went well but I learned how much I love bread. I need bread. 

Later on we had a fantastic member-present lesson with Mr V. He moved into the ward last week. He met with missionaries before he moved and the ward here helped him move in. His native language is French. English is his 2nd language. He speaks it well enough to communicate but not well enough to understand gospel topics. So we had our ward mission leader, Brother Haws who served his mission in France, come and help with the lesson. It went fantastically. It was mostly Mr V and Brother Haws talking with each other in French. He loved the conversation and wants to come to church again.

We finished the night at the McKinney's. They fed us watermelon, and ribs. It was a good meal. They're nice members.

-Tuesday-

We started off teaching Char. We showed him the Refiner's Fire video and discussed trials. He isn't willing to make a full commitment to come back to church. He's not even willing to read the BoM daily. We're probably going to visit him sparingly from now on. 

We talked with a sweet Christian tattoo artist near his home :)

We met an interesting... probably drunk/high lady. She came up to us and asked us for a BoM. At first we were like "Sweet! Someone asked us for a BoM". She took the BoM but then proceeded to educate us on how we're going to receive white horses when Christ comes. Something to do with some verse in Revelations she probably misunderstood. 

Later on we had to take a long uphill road to the top of our area. Surprisingly I was able to do it without much effort. My legs have become much stronger here.

-Wednesday-

Service day. We went to Re-Store and helped out there again. We had 3 appointments between that and the Methodist church but they all fell through. So we went to the Methodist church and served there. They had clam chowder this time :). 

-Thursday-

District Meeting. Elder Patten gave a great training on self-confidence and having confidence in the Lord. It was what we needed at the time. 

We contacted this group of happy guys outside of a liquor store and they opened up and basically had a party with us on the spot. They started reaching out to everyone else in the parking lot, asking them if they wanted to be Mormon. It was funny :). 

-Friday-

This was a busy day! We started early by seeing a LA with Brother Brock. Then Brother Brock took us out to lunch at a place called Skyline Chili. They specialize in the whole spaghetti in chili thing that's super popular in KY for some reason. 

Next we helped Sister Fiet set up for a giant Relief Society thing. We filled the gym with tables and chairs. After that we hauled down to Mr V's for another member-present lesson with Brother Haws. It was another great lesson. He doesn't want to be baptized yet but he still wants to look into the church. He's grateful for all the help the ward's given him with moving in. 

After Mr V, we HAULED up to Panda Express for dinner with the Hopkinsons. We gave them the "Brother of Jared Challenge" in Panda Express. It was interesting teaching a lesson in a food place. 

-Saturday-

We went to the church to help take down the Relief Society thing we set up. Before we took everything down they fed us lunch. It was a little weird being one of the only guys there. Most everyone else was Relief Society. 

As we were biking home we saw this nasty black storm heading towards us. We got inside our home a minute before it hit us. This was the worst storm I've had here in Hurstbourne so far. It kept us in for almost 2 hours. 

When we finally got out we taught CL again. This time we laid out all of the requirements for baptism. Reading, church attendance, Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, etc. He reacted positively to all of them. He said he wants to improve his life and is willing to make the necessary changes to come closer to God. It was a great lesson as well. 

-Sunday-

We had a super busy day at church. Mr V and his family came again, the sisters had an investigator family come too, and there were a few other non-members that showed up. There was a lot of managing where all the non-members were supposed to go. It was good but it was crazy. 

For 3rd hour we pulled Mr V and his wife aside with Brother Haws and taught them the first half of L2. We didn't want to split them up for 3rd hour because his wife doesn't speak much English at all. We had a great lesson with them. It was interesting teaching a lesson for the 3rd hour of church. They loved the pre-earth life part of it. They said they've never heard that before. 

After church a member invited Mr V and his family to their house for dinner. I've never seen members fellowship investigators like that. It's good the ward is reacting positively to the ward members. I'm sure they'll resolve their baptismal concerns and join soon. 

After church we went to the Frey's house for dinner. Brother Frey served with the Orem fire department and did a lot of things with PG's fire department. For dinner they had a slow-cooked beef, mashed potatoes, and rolls. It was very similar to Sunday meals that mom makes. For dessert they had these amazing pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. I ate half the plate :). 

I finished the night by watching a Mormon Tabernacle Tribute to 9/11. It was a great tribute. 

-> Small Plates <-

I don't have anything special this week for a message. So I'll repeat something I wrote last week. This has become one of my favorite quotes. It might even be my absolute favorite quote. 

"You have not failed until you quit trying" - Gordon B. Hinkley

This is so true. They only true failure is when you quit. We have a lot of trials in our lives. Our purpose here is to learn and grow from them. To try again. We're not meant to give up in this life. We're meant to succeed. 

Love Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox

Elder Cox is now a "Belder" (Bike Elder)