Serving in Kentucky: Crazy Trips and Great Food

September 4, 2016

Dear Family,

This was a fun week. It had some amazing meals in it. There were a few unexpected things in it as well. Enjoy!

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

Normal P-Day for the most part. We emailed a lot. We went to the Jones for dinner. They had bacon burgers. We couldn't stay long because Bro Edwards needed to pick us up to give a friend of his a blessing. His friend isn't a member. We were supposed to bless him last week but we wound up not being able to. We were finally able to this time.

Bro Edwards neglected to tell us Daniel lived in Shelbyville... which is way out of our area. We didn't know we were going to Shelbyville until we were on the drive there. So when we got to his house, we spoke for a bit. Got to know him and explain how blessings worked. We blessed him, his wife, and his home. He's been going through some hard things lately and Bro Edwards has been trying to get him to accept a blessing. He finally did and allowed us to come over. It was a good experience. They were definitely feeling the Spirit. Bro Edwards also taught them a bit of the Restoration and bore his testimony about it. They accepted the invitation to have the Shelbyville Elders come over and teach them.

It was a crazy night. We were not expecting to be driven all the way out to Shelbyville.

-Tuesday-

In the morning we helped Sis Fiet sort some Relief Society donations. Later on the Zone Leaders came down to blitz us. That's where 2 companionships work an area at the same time. They told us last week they were coming so it wasn't a surprise. It was just annoying because planning for blitz's is difficult. You basically have to plan out 2 days worth of activities for 1 day.

Anyway, they came over in the evening. We started off with a trip to Panda Express. We were hungry and they were hungry. When dinner was over I went out with Elder Haws and Elder Williams went out with Elder Rasmussen. The same Rasmussen that was in English, IN when I was in Corydon forever ago. All Elder Haws and I did was talk with people on the street. We tried a few people but no one answered.

At the end of the day the ZL's stayed over to "observe our planning". When the Church gave us Fb, they also released these new planning guidelines to go with it. The new guidelines are extremely people-focused and to the point. They help you define exactly what specific steps that your specific investigators need to take in order to progress.

The huge people emphasis is the biggest strength but at the same time the biggest weakness with the new guidelines. If you don't have any investigators to work with then the new guidelines will do little for you. They talk about people, not about finding.

So in our planning session that night we talked about the few people we knew well enough to plan for and spent the rest of the time deciding on potentials and LA's we we going to try because that was the only thing we could do and the ZL's somewhat criticized us for it. I'm still not sure what they were trying to get at. They said it was a good planning session but said we could have done better. But they didn't say how we we could have done better. So... Yeah... It was a weird night. They slept over.

-Wednesday-

Another service day. We went to Re-Store and moved around a ton of heavy TV stands. Later on we went to the Methodist Church and helped them serve food. After that, we met the Spanish Elders at Penn Station to finish the night. They have a monthly tradition to eat out with us and they let me pick the place. I chose Penn Station because I've never been there before. It was actually good. It was like Subway but better.

-Thursday-

We had district meeting. Elder Patten gave a great training on TWE's, worthiness, prayer, and goals which are President Brough's 4 favorite things. After the meeting we all had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. Everyone wanted to go to Mellow Mushroom but I discouraged that option so they chose B-Dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings) which was right next door to Mellow. B-Dubs was so good! I got my wings with the Blue Moon BBQ sauce on them and it was amazing! That was one of the best BBQ sauces I've ever had.

After our amazing lunch Elder Robins and I went on exchange in Hurstbourne while Elder Patten and Elder Williams went to Indian Trails. Elder Robins and I had a good time. He just barely finished his first transfer and he's already a good missionary. We met with Charles and improvised a lesson on prayer, scripture study, and church. It was improvised because we were going to show him some videos about those subjects but the videos wouldn't work so we just taught about them. It went alright. Charles said he wanted to read the BoM more.

Later we had Coordination at the church and the Campbells dropped off food at the church for us.

-Friday-

We started early in the morning by doing some yard service for Ms L. She is the lady in charge of the food service at the Methodist church. She picked us and the sisters up to help at her house. We mowed, weed-whacked, cleared trails, etc. After the service Loretta fed us this fantastic meal. It was some kind of shrimp Alfredo but it wasn't Alfredo sauce. I'm not sure what it was. It was like a lighter Alfredo sauce. Anyway, it was amazing! She also had a salad and bread sticks for us. After doing 2 hours of yard service that meal was absolutely heavenly to receive.

After the service we went back, studied, and exchanged back. Later on, Elder Williams and I visited Bro Strauser in a nursing home. He'll most likely stay there for the rest of his life. It was a good visit. We read some of the BoM with him and explained what it was talking about.

The rest of the day was spent trying people.

-Saturday-

We started off by teaching Mr C the Brother of Jared Challenge. He loved it and was excited to give a BoM to one of his friends. After the lesson we walked with him outside while he walked the dog. It was a good visit.

After Mr C we saw that the local Papa Johns was having a "buy 1 get 1 free" sale so we helped ourselves to some pizza for lunch.

As far as transfer news goes. Elder Williams and I are staying together. Elder Salazar is coming to Hurstbourne Spanish to replace Elder Passmore and Elder Passmore is going to the new Northside Hurstbourne area. So I'll have 2 of my previous companions close to me.

Later in the day Elder Williams and I got a little depressed due to the lack of success even though we've been working hard, so we decided to sit down for a minute. It was then that we remembered this investigator that recently moved into the ward named Mr V. We tried to contact him a few days ago but we weren't able to succeed. We tried again and this time he let us in. Mr V is from somewhere in Africa. French is his native language. He was meeting with missionaries down there when he moved here. Our Bishop told us about him first. We got in with him, talked for a bit, and gave him the first lesson. It went really well. He's married with 4 kids. He's the only English speaker. He said he really wanted to come to church the next day. We tried extending a baptismal date but he didn't want to accept at the moment.

Later on we were trying Mr E and wound up meeting a excommunicated primary president in his complex. She opened up to us and talked about how much she misses the church. We spoke with her and managed to resolve a few of her concerns. She wasn't sure about having us visit yet but I feel like there's potential there.

-Sunday-

We spent so much time waiting for Mr V and his family that we wound up missing the Sacrament. Vincent came a little late but he came with his whole family. They only stayed for Sacrament but they seemed to enjoy it.

After church we did some moving service for some LA's. There were a lot of people there so it didn't take long.

We finished the night with dinner and by breaking our fasts. I ate 3 slices of pizza and half a pineapple. It always feels good to break a fast.

-> Small Plates <-

Here's something cool that I realized this week. I realized how the 5 points of the gospel are a model for a successful life. What prompted this was one of Papa John's "employee values/beliefs/whatever's". It was "If you think you can or you think you can't - You're right!" This helped me realize how Faith is Confidence and from that I pondered on the other 4 points and realized how this worked. Here's what I came up with...

Faith = Confidence

Repentance = Change

Baptism = Action

The Gift of the Holy Ghost = Research/Knowledge/Guidance

Endure to the End = Never Giving Up and Forgiveness

Let's say I have a goal to become the best drummer in the world.

First, I need to have confidence that I can achieve that and not let myself get discouraged. "If you think you can or you think you can't - You're right!"

Second, I need to change the things that are necessary to change in order to achieve this goal.

Third, I need to act. I have to practice, get myself out there, play a lot of shows, etc. Acting is key in achieving any goal.

Fourth, I need to learn from myself, from others, and continue growing as I learn new things. Fifth, I need to keep going. I can't let discouragement get me down. "You have not failed until you quit trying" - Gordon B. Hinckley. I also need to forgive myself and others when I mess up or others mess up. If I am persistent in all of this than there won't be much in the way of me achieving this goal. It might take forever but I should be able to achieve it.

(Side note: I actually don't want to be the best drummer in the world. This was just a good example I could use.)

-> Closing Remarks <-

I only have 7 more months left?! What?,

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)