Serving in Kentucky: Young People, Old People

February 6, 2017

Dear Family,

This week. We had a blast. We worked with a lot of members. Got fed a few times. Yeah... I don't have much of an introduction to this email. These introductions are actually the last thing I write when I write these weeklys. I think that's funny because they're the first thing you read. Usually when I get to writing the introduction I'm tired. These emails take a lot of energy to write. Have fun!

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

We spent half the day at the Diels using their washer and dryer. Ours are broken. When we got the clothes done they fed us lunch again. When we finished there, we napped for the rest of the day. We didn't have to buy much since Sister Staker did most of our shopping last week.

As usual, we visited the H family. We read out of the BoM with him and answered their deep Q's about the resurrection. We almost couldn't answer them. Almost :).

-Tuesday-

Most mornings here in Scottsburg are pretty bland. There's usually not much to do in the mornings. So we usually go on long walks through town and talk with the people we met along the way. On Tuesday's walk, we ran into a less-active who was baptized a few years ago. We talked for a minute and he said he'll get a ride to church.

It's always surprised me how many less-actives I've ran into on the streets. On average, I seem to meet 1 every month. Usually the ones we met like that are nice and want us to come over.

Speaking of less active work, Elder Kloepfer and I have been doing a lot more less-active work lately. President Penrod told us there are a lot of people on the roster who were baptized before they were ready for it. He also gave us a list of part-members to work with. As we've worked on the members more, our days have been a lot more productive.

Later on we called bingo again! Woo! I've got to a point where I know most of the people's names now. Mary is the one I know the best because she's the one I always help out. She's one of the nicest ladies ever.

Later, the Diels drove us up to the Morgans for dinner. The food was great. Sis Morgan is a great cook. The Morgans and the Diels hit it off. They're basically the same people. They talked for a long time. It reminded of me of all those family gatherings where I would be ready to leave but mom would continue to talk with someone for another 3 hours. :) Eventually we left, and the Diels took us to visit Sis Schultz. Again, the Diels and Sis Schultz really hit it off. They're going to plant a garden together. They didn't talk as long this time.

-Wednesday-

22 months! Wow! If I hadn't got that week extension I would be coming home next month. I was originally supposed to come home March 29th but the extension pushed it to April 5th. #Trunky

We had coordination for the first time in a while with Bro Ponder. About half way through, Elder Diel and Bro Ponder went off on a long tangent about false doctrine. Yeah... #OldPeople.

We taught Miss B again! Woo! She's doing great. We taught her L3 and it was the most distracted lesson ever. We meet with Miss B, her mom and her two younger brothers at the church every week. Usually, we just let the two younger brothers destroy the nursery while we teach Miss B. This time around, they were particularly bad. They were in and out every 2 seconds. Miss B couldn't help but get onto them every time they yelled. Yeah... #YoungPeople. Somehow we got through the lesson.

We had dinner with the Spelts. They both talk a lot and they'll talk at the same time. Bro Spelt went off about the same Vietnam stories he's told us. Yeah... #OldPeople. The food was good. They had simple spaghetti.

-Thursday-

Went to Madison for district meeting again. Instead of going to the Downtowner we went to the Hong Kong Kitchen. It was decently authentic. Still super greasy. I was the only one there that knew how to properly use chop sticks. Everyone else was cheating and struggling.

After that we visited a couple of less-actives with the Diels. First we visited Bro V. He's 90 years old but somehow still has perfect hearing and vision. He's nice. But like other #OldPeople he's set in his ways. He can come to church, he just doesn't for some reason. He lives too far away for us to visit him regularly.

Next, we visited Sis Johnson. We couldn't visit long because she had to go somewhere but she and Sister Diel seemed to hit it off decently.

Eventually, we and the Diel's separated and we went to Food 4 R Souls. It was the same as always. I served food.

We saw Jo! And we were actually able to teach him something. We read Alma 36 with him. Jorge's dad actually turned the TV off so we wouldn't be distracted as we spoke with him. The lesson went well. He's slowly opening up more and progressing.

Because of how the day went, we had our Companion Study at the end of the day. Because we didn't need to set lesson plans at the end of the day, we just watched ancient church videos from the 80's.

-Friday-

Well... Friday was slow. The only highlight was teaching Ms Ro. We read 2 Nephi 31 with her and answered her Q's about baptism. She wanted to know the history of baptism. That's something we don't know well, so we told her what we knew, and said we'd look into that more.

-Saturday-

Saturday made up for Friday. We taught Char. He's a former in Austin. He's interesting. He wants to be baptized but "not be a Mormon". So basically, he wants to be baptized but be less-active. Yeah... I'm not going to explain... #OldPeople

We had dinner and a lesson with Sis Schultz. We read Alma 32 with her and she loved it. That was a chapter she read with the missionaries when she was first investigating. It really helped her out with the trials she's going through now.

We finished the night with Bro Ll. At this point we don't really teach him anything anymore. We just read with him and listen while he rants about his life. Yeah... #OldPeople

-Sunday-

We had a great time at church! There were 8 less-actives and 1 recent convert who showed up! The Chapel was almost full. One of the less-actives who showed up was Bryan, the guy we met on Tuesday. He actually did get a ride. The other less-actives were members we are either working with or trying to work with. It was great to see them all there. Funny thing is, President Penrod asked us before church if we were expecting anyone to show up. We told him "No, not really." But then a lot of people came. Woo!

Gospel principles was fun. It was just 2 people and the Diels. One person is surprisingly solid for being less-active for so long. Maybe he'll come back now.

After church we had dinner/lunch with the Diels. They had some great pineapple! And pork.

We finished the week on a strong note. We met the Robi family for the first time. The mom is a member. She's the daughter of Bro Ware who is one of the nicest guys ever. He kind of reminds me of dad. Her husband is not a member. They have 2 young boys. I don't know why she's less-active and I don't know why he isn't a member. They're one of the most Mormon families I've ever seen as far as how they treat their kids. They love their kids. They're so good to them. They play with them frequently. They're super nice themselves. We weren't able to bring up the gospel as we visited them because their boys were all over the place, but when we offered to leave them with a prayer, they happy accepted. It would be awesome they became solid. I'll let you all know how that goes.

-> Small Plates <-

Since we read Alma 32 a time or two this week I would like to discuss my favorite part. I can't remember if I've talked about this before. If I have, sorry. If I haven't, great!

My favorite verse in Alma 32 is actually verse 35. It reads: "O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good; and now behold, after ye have tasted this light is your knowledge perfect?"

I would like to direct your attention to the middle part of the verse that said "whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good."

I've always thought that wording was fascinating. To help me explain, I'm going to tell a story about this.

In Owensboro, during one of the Gospel Principles classes, Bro Emmert asked us what our favorite feature in nature was. The responses were "I like mountains," "I like the ocean," I like the forest," etc. Then came my turn to answer. I answered "Light. Light is my favorite feature in nature." Bro. Emmert asked me "Why is that?" and I said "Because light is the thing that enables you to see the mountains, and the ocean, and the forest. Without light, you couldn't see those." Or in other words, light allows you to discern the mountains and the oceans and the forests. "And whatsoever is light is good, because it is discernible."

Whenever the scriptures talk about Satan or wickedness in general they always describe it with words like "dark/darkness" or "secret". Darkness makes things un-discernible. Things that are secret are hidden, usually in darkness.

So physical light allows you to see things. What's mental light then? That would be knowledge. What's spiritual light? That would be Jesus Christ. There are several places in the scriptures where He's referred to as the "Light of the world." How does Christ give us light? By giving us knowledge about the gospel and the plan of salvation and about many other things.

I could go on. But I invite you to ponder on the light in your life.

Have fun!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)