Serving in Kentucky: Painting!!!

March 13, 2017

Dear Family,

Oh boy! Here we go again with another weekly email! Yay! Woo! I don't have to write many more of these! That makes me happy and sad at the same time. Sad, because I enjoy telling you about my week, all the adventures I had, some cool things I learned, and how cool the gospel is! Happy, because writing these things is an ordeal. By the time I finish an email my brain is fried.

-> Large Plates <-

-Monday-

Breakfast, emailing, My Plan (the church's program for returning missionaries), clothes, shopping, cleaning, napping, etc. Elder McIntosh got a haircut from Bro Sebastion. He gave us some nice aftershave. It smells great but it hurts to put on. 😁

This was a rare P-Day where we didn't see the H family. They were busy with something. We made quick visits to Sis Shultz and Bro L. His roof actually came completely off in last week's storm. His trailer literally had a tarp for a roof. (reason #234 why not to live in a trailer: Storms destroy them.)

-Tuesday-

Elder McIntosh's friend from Greenville, Bro D, came and spent the day with us. He bought us paint supplies and we spent the whole day painting the apartment. We only got the front room done. All those marks that have been left by previous missionaries have disappeared now. He took us to Waffle House for breakfast, and Sonic and KFC for dinner.

You'd be so proud of me painting! 🙂

-Wednesday-

We had interviews with the Broughs again. This was my last normal interviews on the mission. My next interview is going to be my departing interview where President Brough will tell me to get married.

Later we saw Sis S. We read just a few verses out of D&C with her. I'm not sure what to do to help her anymore. All the LA's in Scottsburg have been a lot harder to deal with. I don't know what it is. Nothing we're trying is working.

If someone isn't willing to act on their own, they're not going to be converted. Investigators, less actives, members, missionaries, everyone. Action is key to gaining a testimony.

Later we saw the H family. The older son isn't a member. He just came through some rough trials this last weekend. He sort of hit rock bottom and is looking for light now. His heart has been broken, and his spirit contrite. Prefect for the gospel! 😀 We spoke with him and he asked a ton of questions. So much so, that we taught all of L1 and half of L2 just from the answers we were giving. It was a fun teaching exercise for us, and a great faith building experience for him. I feel like he has a good chance now. It would be awesome to get him baptized. He's the last member of the H family who's not a member. Getting him baptized would do a lot of good in the branch.

-Thursday-

We had my last zone meeting on the mission! Elder Passmore is one of the new ZL's. It was fun seeing him train. I had a trunky moment with Elder Hopkins, the guy who gave me a blessing after my bike accident. He said "Hey, Cox! Maybe we'll go whitewash an area next transfer!" I told him "Um... We're not going to be whitewashing." He asked "Why not?" I told him I was leaving in 3 weeks. He didn't realize I had been out for as long as I have. I also had a trunky moment with Elder Jolly. He's one of the previous ZL's and he's going home with my group. I had another extremely trunky moment with Elder Haws. He goes home 3 months after me. Elder Haws is another one of my previous ZL's.

When we got home, we found out we weren't supposed to paint without permission.... yeah... We made some calls. We're supposed to be getting new paint from the maintenance guy at the beginning of the week to complete and "fix" the apartment. Why did we paint in the first place? The walls were awful. That's why. I wanted to paint but I wasn't about to go buy paint. I was thinking I was never going to paint the place. Until Bro D bought paint for us. Then we just went ahead and did it like I would back home. At least we only did half the apartment so re-painting the half we did shouldn't be too bad at all.

(reason #812 why not to live in an apartment: You need permission for everything!)

(reason #125 why not to live in an apartment: Drums are not allowed.)

We finished the night off with some service at F4RS (Food 4 R Souls). Speaking of service, President Brough showed me an awesome scripture about service a few weeks ago.

D&C 35:12 "And there are none that doeth good except those who are ready to receive the fulness of my gospel, which I have sent forth unto this generation."

The President pointed out how the people we do service with, those who are doing good, are those who are prepared for the gospel. As true as that is, it's a little difficult to find teaching opportunities in other churches (F4RS is at another church). We'll see what happens.

That reminds me, there's a man in our area named Mr T who we've only spoken with a couple times over the phone. Apparently, he got his hands on the BoM, has been reading it, and wants to come to church and speak with us. His work schedule is crazy, so we don't have an appointment with him now, but we'll see what happens with that in the future.

-Friday-

Not much happened on Friday. The highlight of the day was teaching the oldest son of the H family. We reviewed the first half of L2 and extended a baptismal invitation. He accepted! Woo! First baptismal date in a long time! This time his dad, was there. He helped us teach. As with all baptismal dates, I always worry about a person being ready or not. We'll do what we can to make sure he's ready. It's date is for April 8th so I won't be here.

-Saturday-

Saturday was rough too. Throughout my whole mission, for every good thing that happens, there's a bad thing to even it out. I guess getting a baptismal date was an extremely good thing because everything else has died. We have had a much harder time getting in with people lately. Investigators and less actives.

We visited Bro B. He's the old guy who's not completely there. We watched a video with him and discussed charity. The visit went about as good as it could have gone. He usually forgets what subject we're on.

Later, we were supposed to see Ms Ro but she fell though. She told us she had the flu. She gets sick a lot.

On a positive note, I got some adorable notes from Little Miss and Miss Gunnell! There's an Elder Gunnell in the mission. I wonder if they're related.

-Sunday-

Sunday was another down day. 3 down days in a row. We went to church. Sis Charley and Sis Roush spoke in Sacrament. They did good jobs. No one came for gospel principles so we went to Sunday school. In Elders Quorum, it was just us and the Elders quorum president, Bro Banda. We basically had a coordination meeting with Bro Banda since the mission leader, Bro Ponder, is in the hospital for the 3rd time. Bro Banda gave us a nice short message on pioneers. The pioneers were some of the most powerful examples of faith that you can look to.

-> Small Plates <-

This week in my BoM reading (I'm up to Alma 20), I noticed how many times it uses the phrase "thoughts of the heart" or other similar variations. The scriptures use the heart in a lot of things. The phrase "thoughts of the heart" stood out to me because when I read that, I thought "Wait... hearts don't think..."

Well, hearts don't think. So what did that phrase mean? Consider what the heart is to the body. It's one of the most vital organs. If the heart fails, the whole body fails with it. It never stops working. It's always going. Constant and vital are how I would describe a heart.

So what does "thoughts of the heart" mean? Well, this is a phrase that refers to the thoughts, ideas, personality traits, beliefs, etc. that define each person. Their core or their "heart". In other words, your "thoughts of the heart" are who you are.

"Thoughts of the heart" deals with the mind, not the actual heart, because hearts don't think. Our minds do. So what do you hold at the heart of your mind? School? Work? Your family? The gospel? All of these? None of these? Something else entirely?

The gospel can have a powerful effect on someone because it can change the "thoughts of the heart", the core of who they are by teaching them their true relationship with God and the purpose of following Christ, but it can only do that if someone lets it.

Anyway, this is a fun thought I had this week. 😁

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)