Serving in Kentucky: The Book of Hoole

October 24, 2016

Dear Family,

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

This was a fun P-Day. Elder Williams and I started off by eating breakfast at Waffle House. It had been over a year since I previously ate there. It tasted so good! After breakfast we went to the church and hung out with the other missionaries in the area like usual.

We finished the night helping the Hopkinsons move. I've helped so many people move on my mission! This move was pretty easy. They live in an apartment and there were a lot of other members there to help.

-Tuesday-

Brother Vivian picked us up in the morning to take us to the transfer spot. Once there we caught up with some of our friends there, found our new companions, and moved some luggage around. My new companion is Elder Hoole. He's been out for about 5 months. He was trained by Elder Davidson in Sulphur Well. Elder Davidson was one of my zone leaders when I was in Corydon. He was the best zone leader I ever had. One of my favorite missionaries.

When Elder Hoole and I got back to the apartment, the Spanish Elders picked us up to go shopping. They also took us to the bike shop to get Elder Hoole a bike. While I was there I bought some new lights for my bike. My old lights were damaged and weren't bright enough. It also has an expanded field of vision so I can see everything! It's bright!

After the bike shopping we had lunch, got settled in, and began working. We biked to the Methodist church to have a member there pick us and the sisters up to help an elderly lady out with her yard. We got to the yard and did some simple yard service. It didn't take long at all. They ordered Pizza Hut for us. I've noticed that most people out here prefer Pizza Hut over other pizzas.

-Wednesday-

Service day! At ReStore we helped a lady there move most of her huge granite kitchen set into her truck.... let me tell you that was so much fun!...>:(.... She felt bad for us so she gave us some money for lunch. So right after we finished our work at ReStore we hopped over to WW Cousins (basically Fudruckers) and ate some half pound bacon cheese burgers. That made everything okay :).

Later on we visited Mr C briefly. He showed his music. He likes to take old video game music and remake it with modern instruments and sounds. He's actually really good at it. He said he'd like to go to school for it. We told him there were colleges for it.

After Mr C we went to the Methodist church and served more food. At the Methodist church there's a special apron and a special chef's hat that the senior missionary gets to wear. Elder Williams had been wearing those previously because he had been in Hurstbourne longer but now he's gone, and I've inherited the apron and the hat.

Elder Hoole's back tire already went flat. Day 2 and he had a flat! He's now officially a bike missionary. :)

-Thursday-

This day exploded.... we got soaked in the rain 3 times, got another flat in Hoole's tire, and found a mountain of grass, leaves, and dirt clogging our bathroom sink.

We started off busing down to district meeting. We got soaked for the first time on the walk there. The bus doesn't take us all the way there. It gets us within walking distance. We got soaked on the walk. We made it to the meeting though. Once there our new district leader, Elder Lesh, gave a great training on commitments. Elder Lesh has been out for about a year. He's going to be a great district leader.

After the district meeting we played district ping-pong while we were waiting for the bus. The church at Eastern Parkway had a ping-pong table in it. The bus eventually came, we went home, and started working. We found a lady close to the church who was trying to fix her bike chain. Who better to help fix a bike than us? :)

We fixed her chain and she offered her sink to wash our hands. She didn't want to talk gospel but at least we left a very positive impression. After we helped her, it started raining again. We got soaked for the 2nd time on Thursday as we booked it to the church.

After some time drying off at the church, we went back out into the world. We saw Mr V. This visit went a lot better than last Sunday. He asked us to share a message with him so we read 3 Nephi 11 with him. It blew his mind to see that Jesus came to America. He's looking forward to coming back to church. He gave us cake and orange juice. :)

Right after we got out of Mr V's, Elder Hoole's tire went flat again. It took me a while to fix this one. When it was fixed, it was about 9 at night. The sun goes down at about 6 here and it's dark by 8. So it was definitely dark at 9. To add to that,Mr V lives about 20-25 minutes from our apartment so we had to bike home in the dark. To further add to that, it was raining... hard... for the 3rd time this day. And lastly, it was cold... very cold... So from Mr V's house we had to go on a long, dark, cold, rainy bike ride back home....

-Friday-

Weekly planning day. Not much happened this day. We biked everywhere and talked with everyone. We met 2 more people who were interested but live in other areas. At the end of the day we went to Kroger to get some snacks. Hoole bought a giant bag of Kit Kats and Reese's and I bought 20 oz. bottles of mango soda. :).

-Saturday-

In the morning we saw Sister Sos. We had a brief lesson about the Book of Mormon and wound up answering her Q's about eternal families. She didn't know that we could seal people who are dead :). That made her happy because she wasn't sure if she'd be with her family after this life.

Later on in the day we felt like we needed to go to the church for some reason so we went. Once there we did some work on Facebook. We got there just before a leadership meeting for our stake conference began. The leaders from the whole stake were slowly funneling in. Campbellsville is in the same stake as Hurstbourne so as we were working on Facebook, President Rodenberg from Campbellsville walked by and said "Hi." He remembered me and we talked for a bit. It had been close to a year since I saw him last.

Later on we were out and about and we met someone who thought he was God. We meet some crazy characters in Kentucky.

-Sunday-

Stake Conference. The whole stake was there. I reconnected with about 15 members I knew from Campbellsville. It was great seeing them again. The conference itself was great. The 3 members of the stake presidency all gave fantastic talks. Our stake president, President Chadwick, is a sweet guy. He's a convert to the church. President and Sister Brough also spake. Their talks were great too.

After the conference some Sulphur Well members gave us some sammiches for lunch. The rest of the day was pretty usual. Biking everywhere, trying everyone, and talking with everyone. As usual, we found more people who were interested who live in other areas. At least we're finding people who want to be taught.

-> Small Plates <-

We met a Methodist this week who said something that gave me a unique perspective on things. She said "The Lord might not let you see the fruits of your labors because you'd get prideful". I think that might tie into President Uchtdorf's Aunt Rose talk. When we don't see success from what we do, we might question if we're good enough or not. However, we need to remember that the Lord is in control and as long as we have faith in Him and try to serve Him, He'll take care of us.

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)