Serving in Kentucky: Last Week in Hurstbourne

November 28, 2016

Dear Family,

This week was interesting. It had a member paying for doughnuts, district lunch at Chipotle, a pink and purple sunset, a million Christmas trees, more bike maintenance, Thanksgiving, Chick-Fil-A, transfer news, cheesecake, church, and the nicest Baptists ever.

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

Started off at Krispey Kreme. As we were walking up a member happened to pull up and pay for our doughnuts. He's an oral surgeon. That was nice having our doughnuts paid for this week :).

Other than that not much else happened this P-Day. It was pretty normal. Spent it at the church hanging out with like 12 other missionaries. It was fun.

-Tuesday-

District meeting was moved to Tuesday because Thanksgiving is on Thursday. Elder Lesh gave a TWE training that was good. After the meeting we went to Chipotle for lunch. It was alright.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. We spent it biking around trying people. Towards the end of the day we saw a purple and pink sunset that only lasted a few minutes. Elder Hoole got some pics of it.

We met a young guy on the streets and taught him the first half of the Restoration. We blew his mind with a few of the points of doctrine.

-Wednesday-

Service day. At ReStore we moved a million more trees from upstairs to downstairs.

I learned more about bike maintenance. My bike accident left my rims lightly bent. I called a member who knows a lot about bikes and asked how to straighten them. You have to take a spoke wrench, of which my new multi-tool has, and adjust the spokes accordingly. I spent a lot of time straightening my rims. I got them straight though :).

At the Methodist church we helped cook chicken nuggets.

-Thursday-

Thanksgiving! Holidays as a missionary are always hard to get through. For the most part we just rested at the church and at our apartment. The Dodds had us over for lunch. They're a fun family. It was nice. They had great pumpkin bread.

We finished the night by watching the "Piano Guys Face2Face" and President Monson's "On the Lord's Errand." They were great movies.

-Friday-

My sickness was acting up on Friday. We started the day at Chick-Fil-A because it had been a while. It was heavenly.

We went to visit Mr Ch. We showed him a Mormon Message. I don't know what to do with him. I doubt he'll return to full activity soon.

Later on in the day we met a lady who said she'd be interested in a message and has "a lot of questions for us." It always worries me when I meet people who "have a lot of questions".

We finished the day reconnecting with a Catholic lady Elder Lesh and I taught a couple weeks ago. She said she would love to keep meeting with us.

-Saturday-

We found out our transfer news in the morning. I'm going to Scottsburg, Indiana. My new companion will be Elder Kloepfer (cleffer). He'll hit his year mark in December. Scottsburg is another small town in Indiana. It'll probably be similar to Corydon.

In the morning we went to ReStore again because they asked us to come back on Saturday. We moved even more Christmas trees. After that we had to bike to the church for a lesson with Ms Fer. We taught her in our service clothes. She's a referral from one of the California missions. English is not her first language. In the lesson we had to Skype in a member from California who worked with her to translate. They talked in a Persian language for most of the time. We taught her the first half of the Plan of Salvation. The member translated everything we said. It was an interesting experience teaching like that.

After that long lesson we finally got into dress clothes and biked around. We went and visited the Baptists. They invited us to their Christmas service. They gave us Cheesecake :).

-Sunday-

Went to church. Brother Crandall and Bishop Finder gave fantastic talks. They're both great speakers. I was supposed to teach Gospel Principles but no one showed up so it was cancelled and I got out of teaching :).

Later on Phil, one of the Baptists, picked us up and took us to their church for the service. The moment we walked in we got a couple death glares. But everyone else was super friendly. A lot of people came up to us and were very kind to us. Absolutely no one tried to fight us which is almost uncharacteristic of Baptists. This was the nicest lot of Baptists I've been around. Even the pastor was super nice to us. He told us how he spoke with some RM's and Seventy's in Utah and loved our church. He said he wanted to meet with us and talk with us. He also said he is strictly against bashing. He just wants to understand our church more.

The service itself was fun. There were a lot of classic Christmas carols. A couple recited prayers. And a lot of food.

<- Small Plates ->

I have 18 weeks left. That's as long as I spent in Hurstbourne. I feel like I just barely got to Hurstbourne. By the time I get to the end of my mission I will have felt like I just barely got to Scottsburg. It's weird to think I've spent this long in the mission. I'm dying (lingo for mission ending). I don't really know what to say at this point. The mission has been an experience that I can't put into words. I have obtained a knowledge that is invaluable. A knowledge I wouldn't have been able to obtain any other way. I've learned so much. I've experienced so much.

My testimony of the gospel, Jesus Christ, the scriptures, the restoration, the plan of salvation, and everything else has become unbreakable. For that I will be forever thankful.

Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox - GKLM