Serving in Kentucky: Time

October 3, 2016

Dear Family,

I don't think it's hit me yet. I hit 18 months this week and I don't really feel any different. Also, I don't care what you say, it has not been 6 months since the last General Conference! There is simply no way it's been that long. I vividly remember watching April's conference in Owensboro. And now I've already watched one here in Hurstbourne.

(Oh my... time is speeding up!)

This week was an adventurous week here in Hurstbourne. It had rain, adventures to parts of the area we've never seen before, General Conference, and the other general adventures that comes with being a missionary. Get the excitement below!...

<- Large Plates ->

-Monday-

Another normal P-Day full of shopping, emailing, and resting. We were going to help some LA's move but they wound up cancelling.

-Tuesday-

I picked up my small package and was quite surprised at the contents. A bag of great beef jerky and another Carrabbas gift card! Elder Williams and I are excited.

Later on we met with Brother Reich. He served his mission in Kentucky back in the 50's. He told us what it was like. He also told us how different the Eastern Parkway building was. He served a chunk of his mission in Paducah which isn't in our mission now. He said back then it was a branch. Now it's a stake center. He said back then there wasn't a single stake in Kentucky or anywhere in the eastern US. Now stakes cover everything. The Church has grown quite a bit.

Later we met with Bro L. He's an interesting less-active. He grew up in the church, went through seminary and everything, but never gave the Book of Mormon a true chance. The result? No testimony. He's a nice guy and all, but he, himself said he doesn't know what he believes. His mom and his brother are still active. Bro L and his non-member wife are somewhat looking for a family church. They said they want a church that emphasized the family. As far as I know, we're the best church at that :).

Weather-wise, this was probably the most perfect day I've had my whole mission. The air was clearer than it has ever been. The whole day was cool but not cold. There was a tiny breeze. The colors were vibrant. The sun was out. I honestly just enjoyed biking around Kentucky in this weather. I wish every day was like that but I guess I wouldn't appreciate it if it were like that :).

-Wednesday-

Service day. We went to ReStore for only an hour this time. We had to leave early to visit a less-active our Bishop wanted us to see. While we were at ReStore, Elder Williams got a 3rd bike. It's an ancient 1-speed road bike. All 3 of his bikes are trashed. He inherited all of them. It's missionary bikes like his that caused me to buy a bike. I was tired of dealing with all the problems that come with a hand-me-down bikes.

Anyway... We biked up to this less-active and guess what... he fell through... So we got Arby's and ate lunch at the church. We had full intention to leave the church after our lunch hour but do you know what happened next? You guessed it! It started raining hard! So we had to stay in the church for longer. The storm was severe enough that it kept us in the church for a while. When the storm finally ended after an eternity, it was time to go to the Methodist church. It was easy helping out this time because all we did was make spaghetti, salad, and bread. After we helped out there the main minister at the Methodist church gave us a full church tour. It was pretty fun! This minister reminded me of our stake president here.

-Thursday-

District meeting. And you know what? It rained again! This time on the 15 minute walk to the Eastern Parkway building from the bus stop. Yeah... Wanna know what the best part was? Some zone leaders from another zone drove by us, yelled at us, and didn't pick us up in the rain :).

In the district meeting the sisters gave a great training on teaching people, not lessons. They did this by emphasizing that it's more important for someone to have a spiritually uplifting experience than for you to cover all the material.

After the district meeting Sister Williams wanted me to do some work on her new bike. It took me 30 minutes to fix everything on that bike. There was a lot wrong with it. Someone who shall remain nameless helped Sister Williams put it together and didn't do the best job. However, her bike works just fine now :).

Later on we visited Mr V. He said he had a concern about if he should have his kids speak English all the time to help them out with school here or have them speak both to retain his culture. We told him that General Conference was coming up and that he could take that question to the conference and that it would be answered. He became excited to watch the conference. The best part is he'll be able to watch it in French.

-Friday-

For the most part this day was one of those classic days where you try everyone but no one answers. I had to do some minor work on my bike. The front tube wasn't working right and it was causing the tire to be inflated unevenly. I had to buy a new tube to fix it.

Towards the end of the day Brother Love (yes, we have a Love family in our ward) picked us up for dinner. Brother Love was from a less-active part-member family before his mission. He was baptized into the church a couple years before his mission and baptized his wife when he got back. Brother Love made these amazing tacos for dinner. He learned on his mission that the acid in pineapple juice tenderizes meat so he cooked his taco meat with chunks of pineapple in it. Not only did that make the meat taste great, it was very tender too!

-Saturday-

General Conference #4! 18 months! We started the day off with teaching Sis Sos. It was a simple lesson on reading praying and coming to church. She said she had the conference set to record before we even brought it up. We then watched the first session and it was amazing. That was probably my favorite session from the whole conference. I learned a lot of things that will help me move forward. It's kinda crazy how truly inspired the leaders of the church are. They answered several of my questions and gave me council necessary for me at this time. I absolutely love General Conference now.

Between the first and second sessions we had lunch at Arby's. A member happened to be there and paid for our meals. That doesn't happen too often.

Then we watched the second session and it was amazing as always. More guidance and direction. And as always, a special feeling of peace.

In between the second session and the Priesthood session we got ice cream nearby. We finished the night with the Priesthood session. It was amazing.

-Sunday-

General Conference again. We watched the first session and were edified there. After the first session we tried Mr V but he was working. Then we watched the second session. I hate it when General Conference ends. It's hard sitting through it but there's a feeling there that I don't like leaving. It's hard to leave conference.

We finished the night at the Haws house. We had coordination and in the process had dinner. That was great :).

<- Small Plates ->

A major theme of Conference that I picked up on was appreciation. Appreciation for the gospel, for the Lord, for your blessings, etc. There were several talks that mentioned appreciation. I feel like honest and sincere appreciation is difficult at times. We might be worried with something else to give the Lord an honest and sincere "Thanks". On the other hand, we might just get used to various things in the gospel and our thanks become rote. I try to be honest and sincere with this.

Although as missionaries and as people in general, we'll pray for the same things over and over again, I feel like the repetition itself is less important than the intention behind it.

Do you appreciate the gospel? Do you remember how you felt the first time you felt the Spirit testify to you? Can you feel so now?

Love,

Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Oh! By the way... Elder Gary E Stevenson and Elder Juan A Uceda are coming to the GKLM on October 15th. They're going to have a 2-hour training session in the Crestwood Stake Center right next to the temple specifically for missionaries. It's mission-wide so I'll get to see everyone!