Dear Family,
Why is this letter titled "Alma 40?" Well... As Brother Emmert in Owensboro would put it... "Several people became active participants in the plan of salvation" this week. Thankfully, that's true in more ways than one. Get the details below 😁.
-> Large Plates <-
-Monday-
I had the most exhaustive emailing session of my whole mission. I emailed/messaged 25 people. Most of them were people I had to thank for one reason or another. A lot of those people were members from back home who wrote me at the ward Christmas party. I sent all of them "thank you" notes.
I took a two hour nap! Woo !!
Later that night we saw the H family. They're recent converts. We introduced FHE to them. We did that by reading the Family Proclamation. It was a solid lesson. They're progressing rather nicely. I like working with them.
-Tuesday-
We had 3 little miracles on Tuesday! The first one was an encounter with a less-active who's normally impossible to meet because she's never home. Well, we felt impressed to walk by her house in the morning and we happened to catch her raking leaves in her front yard. Woo! We had a nice little chat. Hopefully we'll be able to start working with her more. She comes to church about once a transfer which is better than most other less-actives.
The second miracle was similar. We ran into another less-active at a gas station. We didn't really plan on seeing her there. We just happened to run into her there. We had another nice little chat. She's less-active because all of her kids play like 10 sports. And Sunday is always a big game day.
The third miracle was with Miss B's last lesson. We always have to get another guy to come for her lessons because we can't teach females alone. Normally Elder Boettcher did that for us but with him being gone, that made our lives a little more difficult. This was her last lesson before her baptismal interview. Thankfully, her mom was able to pull through and bring her dad along. Normally he's working when we have the lessons but he was off this day. So we had the last lesson and everything went well. Yay!
Among other things we did on Tuesday, we called bingo at the nursing home again. That's already fun. Some of those old people are losing their minds but others are still quite sharp. Those are the fun ones to talk to.
-Wednesday-
Wednesday was fun. We had another weekly planning session. 11 more to go! Then Elder Kloepfer took some time to practice piano for Miss B's baptism on Saturday. Later on we began a 2-day exchange with Madison. It was 2 days because Miss B's interview was this Wednesday, district meeting was this Friday, so we didn't want to burn a lot of miles to exchange back on Thursday. Therefore, we went on a 2-day exchange.
Did that paragraph make sense? I hope it did.
I was in Scottsburg with Elder Irwin for the exchange. We had a fun time! When we started the exchange we got a call from Sister Chandler. She was wanting a blessing for her health. So we went over, visited for a bit, and gave her the blessing. Everything went well.
Later on we met with Miss B and Elder Irwin did the baptismal interview. She did very well. She passed! Yay!
We had another solid lesson with Ms Ro about the atonement. This time around we taught her the plan of salvation and emphasized how the atonement played a role in that. She enjoyed the lesson, as usual, and learned a couple more things about the atonement.
Elder Irwin and I finished the day at Wendy's. That's always a good way to finish a day.
-Thursday-
We went to the Clearinghouse for the first time in a month. Normally we're supposed to go every Thursday morning but they haven't been open on Thursday mornings for the last month. They finally were this time around. All we did was sort cans. Nothing crazy. Just beans and more beans.
We had lunch with the Terrell's at the Health Food Store. The Health Food Store is this tiny shop on the square that sells all things healthy. The have a tiny restaurant in the back that serves, you guessed it! All things healthy. I got a grilled cheese sandwich made from very healthy, and very expensive, bread. I also got a side of tomato soup to go with it. It was good food. I'll have to go back for more.
After lunch, Irwin and I planned on doing some tracting but right before we started, it started pouring rain on us. We waited in the car for a bit until the storm calmed down. While we waited, we made some phone calls. I also called Sister Chandler to check up on her. She was doing worse. When the storm calmed, we went and knocked some doors. We actually got a decent amount of success out of it. We found this Pentecostal guy who was interested. Pentecostal's usually worry me because they're the crazy ones, but this guy was easy going so we might actually get somewhere with him. I'll keep you all posted on that.
After the tracting we went up to Austin. We met this guy outside his house add he was talking to his dog. He was super nice but... crazy at the same time. He talked to us for about 15 minutes. Here's a little except from our conversation.
Guy: "What church do you guys go to?"
Me: "The Church of Jesus Christ of..."
Guy: *cuts me off* "Where are you guys from?"
Irwin: "I'm from Washington."
Guy: "Where?"
Irwin: "Washington."
Guy: "OH! You're from Kentucky! I love Kentucky!"
He kept confusing us for school-book salesmen. Even though we repeatedly told him we weren't. He was funny though.
After we finished with him we did service at Food 4 R Souls again. Elder Irwin got a shirt. We helped serve burgers and hot dogs this time. Their food has gone down lately. When I first got here, their food was great. Now it has degraded to normal in kitchen quality.
Later that night, as we were falling asleep, we got calls from Sister Boettcher and President Penrod informing us that Sister Chandler, the lady Elder Irwin and I just barely gave a blessing to, passed away that evening. What disturbed me the most about that was the fact that I was one of the last people who she ever talked to in this life. I talked to her on the phone Thursday afternoon, and she passed Thursday evening. She had a lot of health problems. But she was just a few weeks shy of 33.
-Friday-
We drove to Madison for district meeting and to end the exchange. Irwin gave a fun training on finding. I got a couple ideas out of it. Something that we do at every missionary meeting is we stand up and recite the missionary purpose,
D&C 4:1-7,
1- "Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
2- Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.
3- Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;
4- For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;
5- And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.
6- Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
7- Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen."
and 3 Nephi 5:13,
"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."
While we were reciting, a non-member walked into our meeting. From his perspective it probably looked like we were chanting something. He was cool about it though. He just came in to tell us that his truck broke down and that he parked it in our parking lot until help would come.
After we exchanged back we drove back to Scottsburg and began or normal days activities. We saw Brother L and read D&C 84 with him. He really wants the priesthood. He seems to be progressing.
We also taught the H family again. This time we went over family councils and invited him to apply them into his family. The dad is a really good dad to his two sons. One son's not a member. Hopefully we can change that soon.
-Saturday-
Well... Miss B was baptized. The Boettchers drove us all the way up to the North Vernon building for her baptism. North Vernon is way out of the mission. We got to meet the sister missionaries who serve there. It was kinda weird meeting missionaries from another mission. North Vernon is part of the Indianapolis mission.
Before the baptism, we and President Penrod ran around finalizing the program. The service itself went very well. I was one of the witnesses for the baptism. Miss B was a little scared to get into the water but she did and Elder Boettcher baptized her quickly. As she was getting out of the font she said "I did it, Mom! I did it!" She was supposed to be baptized last year but she was terrified of the water and she didn't like the large crowd that was present. But she was ready this time around.
After the service, the Boettchers drove us home and we began working. We saw Ms Ro again and taught her the most powerful atonement lesson she's had yet. We read Alma 42 with her and broke down the laws of justice and mercy for her and everything finally clicked for her. She finally understood everything we've been telling her. In this lesson we finally found her true concern and answered it. She wanted to know why trials happen. It took a lot of lessons to bring that out. I don't think even she understood what her true concern was. But that was it. "Why do trials happen?" Or more specifically "Why do my trials happen?" We finally answered that.
-Sunday-
Went to church! Woo! Miss B was confirmed. She asked us to participate in the confirmation. That was a sweet experience. The rest of the church service was good too. I love learning from the Gordon B. Hinckley book. I look forward to reading all of those teachings of the president's books when I get home.
The rest of the day was difficult to work. Sundays are always hard to work because it's the end of the week, you're tired, you had church earlier, etc. This one was particularly hard because it was cold, wet, raining, cloudy, dark, and gray. We drove around trying potentials, formers, and less actives. We didn't get much success out of that. We spent the last part of the day going through the branch roster looking for part member families. We found a few that might be good to start working with in the future.
-> Small Plates <-
I don't really have any profound thoughts for this week. I'd say the two spiritual highlights were Ms B's baptism and our lesson we had with Ms Ro where everything about the atonement clicked for her. Ms Ro's example taught me something about teaching the gospel.
Concerns are always simple and therefore require simple answers. However, it may take some time for those teaching and those being taught to understand the concern. In Ms Ro's case, it took several lessons for us and for herself to understand that her concern was not how the atonement heals us, but that there's a reason for everything. Especially trials.
There is a reason for everything. Especially trials. Trials help us grow. They help us learn. They're meant to stretch us.
(I feel like half of my spiritual thoughts have to do with trials. That's become a favorite subject of mine.)
In summary of this week. We had someone pass away, but we also saw someone get baptized. Both are active participants of the plan of salvation. One is helping in the spirit world, another just took their first steps to eternal life.
Every one of God's children is a participant in the plan of salvation. We are all participants. We are all commanded to help one another in the capacities we're capable of. This is what missionary work is.
-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)
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| Secret selfie with super nice tie. |
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