Zoo!

April 25, 2016

Dear Family,

This was a rather unique week. Every day was pretty different from the others. Here's the breakdown:

Monday
Jason took us bowling again. I did a lot better than last time. My highest score this time was 139. Later on we had a really effective night. We met a lot of people and got a few potentials. We met one man who is the father of 4 kids. He's a nice guy. We met him in his yard while he was cleaning it. We started talking about the church and had a great conversation. He said he wants his kids to grow up with faith in God. We told him about the primary program and he liked it. We also asked if we could drop by to teach him and he said that would be great. He mentioned how he's unsure which church is right. You know, we actually met more people than normal this week with that concern.


Tuesday
In the morning Elder Salazar ran a few miles and I biked next to him. I don't like running but I did want to ride my bike. After that, we had to take the bike elders on a morning Walmart trip to get a new inner tube for one of their bikes. We picked them up, went to Walmart, Got the tube, dropped them off, and went back home. About 10 minutes later, they called and said the tube was defective so we had to pick them up and do it all over again.

Later in the day, we met with a man named Mr Ru. He speaks Spanish so Elder Salazar is the only one who can teach him. He taught him the first lesson and extended a baptismal date for May 28. He accepted. From what Elder Salazar said, he accepted it really well. During the lesson he was engaged and actually interested so that was nice. He told us about a dream he had where he was walking and he came to this large, black canyon. He couldn't cross it himself. But 2 angels came and helped him across. I'm pretty sure those two angels were us. :)

Tuesday night for splits, I went with the Smiths to see the Hamiltons. Sis Hamilton has had a lot of recent medical issues. When we got to their house we found them fishing in a pond. If Elder Salazar was there, he'd be all over the fishing. I talked to Sis Hamilton while Bro Smith talked to Bro Hamilton. Both of them are great people. They're really nice. Sis Hamilton is your typical Kentuckian who has an infinite amount of things to say somehow. She can talk. During our conversation she guessed that I like jazz drumming.

Wednesday
The Craigs took us out to breakfast Wednesday morning. They took us to this place called Dee's Diner. They had fantastic breakfast food. I ordered pancakes with my food and they brought out the biggest pancakes I've ever seen. They were literally a foot and a half wide. The plate they were on wasn't even big enough. They were thick pancakes too. After breakfast we started working with biking and talking to a lot of people on the street. The last two people we talked with said we could come back. One of them used to talk with the missionaries. Later we picked up the Belders (Bike Elders. That's what I'm calling them now) to help out with some service for a single lady. We just helped her clean out her house. We had to stop half way through to go to some appointments. but they all fell through so we went back and finished with the cleaning.

Later, we taught the Vans. They're doing okay. They know they need to change and get back into church, but they're not putting the action necessary in to accomplish that. Later, the youth went out bowling. A couple of our investigators went so that allowed us to go too. I didn't do so good this time around. I guess I've been bowling too much lately.

Thursday
Elder Salazar and I went to the Pitino Shelter (homeless shelter we do food service at) while Jason, the bowler, took the Belders to Dee's Diner again. Yeah... After that, I went on exchange in the bike area with Elder Gardenier. I got to ride my bike the whole day. It was fun. My bike worked flawlessly. We tried to teach a man the first lesson, but he would talk about judging and racial profiling. He was a talker. Nice guy through. After that, we took a break and had a good discussion about how hard it was to baptize.

Later, we taught Mr C. I taught him back in the trio so it was nice to see him again. He's working on getting back in the habit of reading and coming to church. He's still unsure about the church but he believes it's good. I'm sure he'll be baptized eventually. Afterwards, we went to support Miss Smith in her high school choir concert. That counts as service for members. :) The concert was really cool. There were a few songs that were awesome. They did a great job.

While we were there, a LA came up to us and started talking to us. She introduced herself and told us when she got baptized. We asked if she wanted us to visit and she said yes. So it was inspired that we went to a high school concert. :) Elder G and I both realized that was the first time either of us have been back in a high school since we graduated.

Friday
We exchanged back and had district meeting. The Jasper Elders (Jelders) gave a great training on using members. They gave me a different perspective on using members. 
They came up with an acronym for REBAR. Going backwards, 
Results happen from Actions. 
Actions come from Beliefs. 
Beliefs come from Experiences. 
Experiences come from 
Relationships with other members. 
That's a fancy way of pointing out how important members are in missionary work. 

After the meeting we went to Shogun but for some reason the food wasn't sitting well this time. I wasn't feeling good for the rest of the day. During the day, we had weekly planning in the library. We finished the night with the Gomez's. They fed us soft shell tacos with shredded beef. Man, that beef was good. 

Saturday
Nothing happened for the first half of Saturday. We biked half the town, trying people and talking with people on the streets, but nothing really happened. Later, we taught the Vans the Word of Wisdom. It went well. They know they need to quit their stuff. They said they would work on it. 

We went to the Emmerts Saturday night like usual. Bro Emmert grilled burgers and hot dogs this time.

Sunday
We had 3 investigators at church this week so that was good. Lately we've been focusing on helping people get to church instead of hoping they'll get there and it paid off a bit. We had a 1.5 hour ward council after church. Then Elder Salazar got his back fixed by Bro Capener. And then Sis Capener wanted to feed us so she made us PB&J's. After that, we did our studies. By the time we finished all of our after church stuff, we only had an hour to work. We met a couple of people who were interested.

We had dinner at the Fedors. Bro Fedor was telling me about his mission and how there were a few missionaries that had over 100 baptisms. He also told me about some of the major success he had and how when he went tracting there were many people throughout his mission that literally said "I've been waiting for you. Come in. Teach me." During all of that I was thinking "how the crap was all of that possible?" After dinner, he took us on a tour of his books. He's read just about every church-related book possible. He loves Brigham Young's journal discourses.

I'm looking forward to the Skype call. It'll be much needed. Thanks for everything you do. You help me so much.

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Giraffe time!

Gorgeous green snake

2 humps!

Teaching Lesson 1.

Elders and Belders at Evansville Zoo.

Up!.. Then down...

April 18, 2016

Dear Family,

The first half of this week as great! The second half flopped.

Monday
Normal P-Day. We frolfed in the rain; heavy, freezing rain. By the end, our hands stiffened up to the point where we had no accuracy. It was fun. :) Somehow none of us got sick. Later on we met with a man named Mr Brn. We met him a few days prior. We talked to him and he said we could came back. Well, we returned on Monday night and introduced the BoM to him. He was very receptive to it. We asked when we could come back and he said tomorrow.

Tuesday
We started teaching Mr Brn again. This time we taught him a full L1 and extended a baptismal date for May 21st. He accepted the date a little more eagerly than most people. So, there's our first person with a baptismal date in a while. Mr Brn is married with 3 little kids. He's a nice guy. He seems interested. He gives intelligent answers to our questions. The kind of answers people give when they're actually interested.

Later, we met with K. K was a media referral. He's a nice guy with a passion for comic books and video games. So, basically a lot of what I'm interested in too. He's only the 3rd person on my mission I've been able to have video game conversations with. We read from the BoM with him and set another appointment for later in the week.

Later, we helped Ms Val move some sticks. Then we read 2 chapters from 3 Nephi with her. Later, we met with Mr Ed, one of our few Spanish investigators. Elder Salazar taught him L2 and he seemed to like it. He took it well. Mr Ed has his own beliefs that he's very strict so it's interesting whenever we introduce something new to him. Later that night, we went on splits. Elder Salazar and I went out with Bro Shelby. We tried a bunch of people but didn't get in anywhere.

Wednesday
We started on the bikes. My bike is awesome! :) We biked to and taught a man named Mr Ces. We first met him a few weeks ago but we haven't been able to get in regularly until recently. We read a little out of the BoM with him and set an appointment for tomorrow. Right after Mr Ces, we contacted a lady around the corner and wound up having a full L1 with her. Her name was Ms Bri. She's a young mom with 1 child.

Later, we taught the V's. They're a LA couple the missionaries have been working with for a while. Their problem is they'll say that they'll do stuff but never do it. We've been trying to help them but they aren't putting their effort into anything. It's a little frustrating. Oh well. After that, we had another surprise lesson with a guy we contacted a few days ago. His name was Mr He. He speaks Spanish so I'm unable to teach him. We weren't planning on getting in with him. We were just trying to see if he was home. He answered and let us right in. We taught him the first lesson.

English class was cancelled so we went to this neighborhood I've never been to before and talked to the people around. It was a great neighborhood. It was nice, new, clean, and everyone was friendly. Not a single person was mean to us. It was great. We got a few potentials out of it.

Thursday
We went to the Pitino shelter to help out. The zone leaders exchanged Elder Gough so Elder Hansen was there with us today. After service, we taught Mr Ces a full L1 and committed him to May 21st. He wasn't sure at first, but he accepted. The lesson went really well. He understood it and took sincere interest. Later on we met with K and taught him L2. He took off with it. He loved it. He understood it and committed himself to come to church this week.

Later, we picked up the bike elders for the Swopes. Elder Hansen was one of the missionaries who originally taught and baptized Bro Swope. They had their best meal yet: Fettuccini Alfredo, salad, and bread sticks! It was great!

Friday
We had district meeting. Elder Gough trained on setting baptismal dates with people. Afterwards, we ate at Shogun. If you remember, I ate at a Shogun in Glasgow and raved over it. We have one here and we ate at it. It was heavenly. Later we visited Ms Val. She gave Elder Salazar some of her fishing gear she doesn't use. Now Elder Salazar wants to go fishing. Great. I hate fishing. Later, we ate at the Gomez's. They're super nice as always.

Not a whole lot of teaching happened on Friday. This is where the week started to flop.

Saturday
We were supposed to meet with Mr Ces, but he cancelled. Later on, we biked back to him but he was still unavailable. Down the street from him, there was a man trying to get his truck to work. We tried to help him out, but we were unsuccessful. He had been working all day on his truck and said he was very thirsty. I gave him the cool, unopened water bottle I had just pulled out of the fridge. He was very grateful.

Later, we went to Bro Scudder's baptism. He just turned 8 this week. His father, who converted back in November, baptized him. After that, we took the bike elders down to Bro Emmert's for our weekly missionary coordination and meal. We roasted weenies over an open fire this week. I helped Bro Emmert's son climb up a tall, thin pole to nail something in the top. He was not happy to be up there. 

Sunday
We had some great talks in church. Bro Tidwell gave some good analogies for the priesthood and keys with medical licenses and hospital privileges. We ate at the Fuqua's afterwards. They fed us pork chops. They had a couple non-member friends there. Later on,
Bro Shelby had us over and fed us. He's a super nice guy. After, we visited the Q family. I talked to Bro Q while Elder Salazar tried to teach everyone else L3. Their kids are crazy.

That was this week. We have a couple of baptismal dates now which is better than last week. Thanks for all the support you give me!

Loves!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Baby turtle!

So little...

Turtle belly!

This is on the side of almost every trash can here... literally, almost every one.
You know you're in a 100% Christian neighborhood when everyone's trash can has this on it.
2 Corinthians 5:17
 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

See that little sticky note? That's not where I left it... oooo!
I left it beneath my PMG before I went to sleep. When I woke up, it was on my scriptures... oooo!
It's a reminder note to do a study project I thought of this week. I do a lot of study projects.
I think I'll benefit highly from this one as the note moved itself in the middle of the night... oooo!

That's Bro Emmert's son on the pole. He was barefoot and nailing something on the top. It was pretty sketchy

My shoes after a year. I shined them this morning. The bottoms hardly have any wear on them.
I think it's safe to say Ecco's are the best missionary shoe.

Zone Conference

April 11, 2016

Dear Family,

This was quite the interesting week. It was better than the last week. One thing I forgot to mention about last week was I was sick. I was getting over this nasty cough all last week and it finally didn't go away until this week. So for a majority of the week, I was still slightly sick which always makes things more fun right? :D

Monday
Sweet glorious P-Day. These are always needed. Especially after weeks where you were sick and not much happened. We cleaned the car out for the Zone Conference that happened on Thursday. And like usual, we "frolfed." This was Elder Salazar and Elder Gardenier's first time playing. Elder Salazar got lucky and nailed a perfect birdie from 200 ft. away. It was crazy to watch because he didn't try to do that at all. He just kinda threw it in the air and it happened to go 200 ft. and land perfectly in the basket. It didn't even touch the chains!

For dinner we ate at the Inman's. They gave us a tour of their home. Bro Inman used to own Eagle Gate College. After dinner, we visited the Quintana's, one of the few Hispanic families in the ward. They had a Jehovah's Witness friend over. Thankfully, they didn't want to discuss religion because JW's are vicious out here.

Tuesday
We started off joining the Wagners at Cheddars on Tuesday. Yes, we have a Cheddars. It was great. Bro Wagner grew up in Mexico City but is not Hispanic at all. He and Elder Salazar talked a lot in Spanish about Mexico City because that's where they're both from. Later on, we helped Ms Valles clean her garage. I found something cool out about her. Elder Anderson was the one who baptized her, and Elder Anderson was the one who trained Elder Lynch. Cleaning her garage wasn't that hard. It was just dusty. Later, I went on splits with the Smiths and visited a few more LA's.

Wednesday
Well, Wednesday started off with a small miracle. We had a new investigator just fall into our laps. We were walking down a street and this guy stopped next to us in our car. Usually when people do that, they want to yell or bash with us. So when this guy pulled over, I was thinking "great, here we go." But surprisingly, he said he had mad respect for us and our religion and asked us to come by his home to talk. So we went to his home and talked. His name was Mr R. He just barely converted to Christianity back in October from a life of... sin, basically... and praised Jesus for saving him. We taught him the first lesson and he liked it. He said he would read and pray about the BoM. In the few months Mr R's been a Christian, he's learned a lot about everything. During the lesson he was asking us questions about Joseph Smith that most people don't ask us. We answered his questions and set another appointment for later in the week. He said the closing prayer and it was actually done properly.

Later on we met with another new investigator named Ms J. She's a younger mom. She has 3 or 4 kids. We taught her the first lesson on her porch while her young kids were try to break down the door. We finished the day with English class.

Thursday
Zone Conference! We spent most of the day in Evansville because of it. It was a really good conference. President Brough and the Zone Leaders gave really good trainings about reaching our goals. A lot of the key indicators are greatly effected by the agency of others but he pointed out the things we can do on our part to do everything we possibly can for the key indicators. I never really thought much about how much is in our control. It was pretty good to learn something new. At Zone Conference our car was inspected. It has a lot of damage from previous missionaries and within the next week or two, we're going to have to put it in a body shop so we're going to be on bikes for a few days.

Friday
We had a long detailed weekly planning session. That was another thing that was talked about at Thursday's Zone Conference; making sure your weekly planning is done properly. After the planning, we saw a man named Mr Ed. He speaks Spanish, so the only one who can teach him is Elder Salazar. Mr Ed is very particular about his beliefs. He's a Saturday Sabbath kind of guy. It's a big concern with him. We read some of the BoM with him and he enjoyed it. Afterwards, we ate at the Gomez's. They gave us fresh mangos to take home. :)

Saturday
We started off with Barry's baptism. It was great. He had a lot of support from friends, family, and the ward. After the baptism, we took Bro Emmert to see Mr R for a disaster of a lesson. He read very little of the BoM and a lot of stuff from Google and attacked us with questions. Bro Emmert took over and basically threw down on him for not reading the BoM much. He is still open to our message, but he has an issue with over-complicating things and giving attention to things that aren't really that important.

Later on, we went to Bro Emmert's house for dinner and missionary coordination. He showed us his bike collection again. That man loves bikes.

Sunday
We went to church. Yay. Church is always a nice change of pace. We had a good Fast and Testimony meeting. We were supposed to have dinner with the Fedor's, but we found out they were out of town. Right when we found that out, the bishop invited us to his house for dinner. It was nice how that worked out. After dinner, we met with Mr El for the first time in a while. He is a Spanish "former." Here's something I learned from him. If you read the Book of Revelations without the knowledge of the pre-earth life, you will be very confused. That's what happened to Mr El. We tried to teach him that but he's very set in his ways. 

And that was this week. I enjoyed it. We're way down on our teaching pool. We should find someone this week.

Bye!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Bored "Weekly Planning" face. 

Barry got baptized!

Weekly Chick-Fil-A selfie!

We "frolfed" in the rain today!

12 Months!

April 4, 2016

Dear Family,

I forgot my journal so I'm not going to be able to detail day for day this time.

I'm not going to lie, this was a hard week to get through. A lot of people dropped us. We spent a lot of time finding with little success. But with all the lows, there were extreme highs too.

On Monday I went bike shopping! There's this new bike shop in town called "Big O Bike Shop" that just barely opened up the Wednesday before I went there. That means I was the first LDS missionary to ever buy a bike there. Bro Emmert, who's an avid bike rider, told me about them and said I should check them out. I went and had a great experience. They're still in their temporary location. It's a little store and the staff was great. They were kind and super helpful. They led me to buy a Trek, a really nice bike that only weighs 23 pounds. It was a little more I wanted to pay for a bike but it should be worth it. It should last well beyond my mission. I'm definitely shipping it home when I'm done out here. :)

Later on Monday we went bowling with Mr J. He's an excommunicated member. He's a super nice guy and still believes in the church. He's just ex'd for some reason. Earlier in his life he almost went pro in bowling. As we were playing with him, he was striking almost every throw. It was insane! Later on in the week, he hosted us for the first two General Conference sessions on Saturday. He provided food and drinks :)

General Conference was fantastic as always. Yes, I did get to watch it. I actually realized I'll get 5 General Conferences on my mission. My last week is going to be a General Conference week. I think that's pretty cool! I really enjoyed President Nelson's talk. I thought it was great that he told us more of what happened with those 2 girls and their family. It was a great story. I laughed a little bit with Elder Holland's last talk. He was right when he said, "I didn't want tomorrow." I really didn't. I wanted more conference. I wanted more of that great feeling. But I've come to learn that without contrast, spiritual highs are not really highs at all. I also laughed when President Uchtdorf jokingly declared German to be the celestial language. :) 

I'll work on sending my notes to you. I didn't take as many this time. I should have them to you by next week.

I hit my year mark this week! It didn't really hit me until I realized that meant I've been out for 12 months! 12 MONTHS! Have I really been doing this for that long? My days in the MTC and with Elder Lynch feel like so long ago. But at the same time, I feel like I just left home last week. It's crazy!

I didn't realize how much I've grown until Sister Brough pointed it out to me a few weeks ago in our last interview. She said when I first came out, I looked terrified. I was. Everything was new, and I had no idea what I was doing. But she said now I've completely lost that look of fear. As I've thought about that interview, I've realized a couple things. To an extent, I still am terrified. It's not nearly as bad as when I came out but I still feel fear. I still worry about teaching the right thing, finding those who are ready, using my time effectively, and even contacting still scares me. But what's changed in the last year? What's changed to allow me to lose the look of fear and feel far more confident in the work? It's because I have come to know Jesus Christ. I have come to develop a relationship with Him. I've come to know how He does His work. And I have come to know His teachings.

When I first came out I didn't know much. I knew the doctrines and had some personal experiences but I didn't know a whole lot. And that was the ultimate source of my early fear, not knowing. But now that I've been out for a year, I have come to know. There's so much more that I know now. And from this knowledge I can draw confidence. There is no need for fear now. 

On another note, Cl and L dropped us this week. They've "decided not to be Mormon." We asked them why and they didn't give an answer. We'll probably try back later. They were too solid to just give up like that. We're also going to be unable to teach J, the 12 year old anymore. His mom got in the way. 

Those are some of the highlights of this week. It was good, but long. It had some disappointments and some happy moments. I would say this week is a great example of what missions are like. It had everything in it.

B should be getting baptized this Saturday. If we were still in the trio, he would count as my first baptism. But since he's in the bike elders area, he won't. :(

Thanks for the box again! It's fantastic. I haven't given out Little Miss' BoM yet. I want to give it to someone who I know will read it. I have a couple people in mind. I'll let you know how that goes.

Loves!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

My brand new bike - weighs only 23 lbs!

#Selfie  #ChickFilA

At the car wash!

:)

Easter

March 28, 2016

Dear Family,

This was a long week. I got a new companion and Elder Gough got a new companion. That means the areas were split in two, and so was the area book. We spent a lot of time "finding." Normally I don't like finding, but for some reason, I actually loved it this week. I had a lot of fun with it.

Here's the breakdown of the week.

Monday
It was the first ever official 2016 Jasper District Frolf Tournament! (Frisbee Golf) All the elders in the district came down to throw discs at chain cages! It was a blast! I didn't win but I still had fun. My new Wraith disc was super fast.
Later, I got to teach Mr B for the last time. We went over some commandments. He liked it. Then some members took us out to Denny's for dinner.

Tuesday
Elder Passmore left early in the morning. Elder Gough and I spent the morning moving his stuff back to his apartment. After that we helped some members move (destroy) a desk. It was an old desk. It was Heavy! 
After the desk, our new companions came. And you know the first thing we did with them? We took them to Moonlite BBQ. That place is dangerously good! After Moonlite, we took the bike elders back to their apartment and Elder Salazar got settled in ours. 
After he settled in, we went TWEing. (Talking With Everyone - It's just a funny way of saying "contacting everyone on the streets") Because Elder Salazar's English isn't perfect, people actually listen to him. It's great! We contacted this crazy Pentecost that started crying because he believed we weren't baptized properly and going to Hell. Oh Pentecost's, how they amuse me.
Later, we went on splits with the members. I went out with Bro Emmert. We gave a member a blessing and taught some investigators. As always, blessings are awesome!

Wednesday
We did a lot of finding. A lot of TWEing. We taught a couple lessons and man! For learning English on his mission, Elder Salazar is a boss at teaching. He's easily the best companion I've had that teaches often from the scriptures. I figured out why. Since English is his second language, he has to rely on the scriptures more than any native English-speaking missionary to articulate what he wants to teach. 
I had an abnormally good morning study. I read about Nephi in the Book of Helaman and about his prediction of the chief judge's murder. I noticed how crazy specific his prophesy on the judge's murder was. It was a testimony builder for me that I, too, can receive revelations like that, if necessary. Because I spent last transfer working both areas, I don't know the car area as well. We're basically reopening it. At the moment, we don't have a lot to work with. So I have to rely on the Lord more now, to tell me where to go. I think that's why I was happy in all the finding I did this week. Making me happy was the Lord's way of saying "Keep it up, you're doing good."

Thursday
Elder Gough needed to borrow the car Thursday morning to drive up to Jasper. While he was gone, we did our weekly planning and then biked up to an appointment. On the way up, my back tire popped. Right at the moment I started walking, it started raining heavily. That could have not been timed better. Eventually, we got the car back. 
Later on, we taught the Swopes. Elder Salazar, as usual, had a lot of scriptures to back up what we were saying. This lesson wasn't as profound as last week's but it was still good. Bro. Swope drove us back in their new Dodge Dart. That was a nice car! It felt great and handled well. I may have been convinced to get one when I get home. :) Elder Jensen has a Dart. He really likes it.

Friday
District meeting. Nothing extraordinary happened other than me finding a brand new crisp, freshly printed $20 bill on the ground. :D:D:D It was right after a guy rudely waved us off :):):)

Saturday
We had a ward Easter party in the morning. It was a lot of fun. They had breakfast and a lot of stories about Jesus. A lot of the ward members were there. Later, we taught the G family. They're the only full-Spanish speaking family in the ward. Sis G's mom was recently baptized. While we were there, we found out that they and Elder Salazar have some mutual friends in Nashville. They became instant friends because of that.
Later, we went to Bro Emmert's for missionary coordination. We ate pulled pork sammiches on his back porch. The weather was really nice. He also showed me his bikes. I'm going to buy a bike soon and I got some good recommendations from Bro Emmert. 

Sunday
Easter Sunday. There were some good talks and lessons at church. After church, we went to the Fuqua's for Easter lunch. And basically after that, we went to the Capener's for Easter dinner. While we were there, they set up an Easter egg hunt for us. So, for like 5 minutes, there were 4 missionaries running around a yard, shoving each other out of the way for Easter eggs. They also had Easter baskets hidden for us. It was really fun. 
After that, Elder Salazar and I drove up to Evansville with the Swope's for an investigator fireside. There weren't many people there but the Spirit was really strong. Everyone who talked was a convert and they all had super good testimonies. I think recent converts always have the best testimonies. For members who have been members forever, or who grew up in the church, it's really easy to give a "routine testimony". The kind of testimony you've heard a million times from other members. But recent converts are able to give a testimony that's a lot more sincere because they're still extremely grateful to be members of the church. For long-time members, being a member becomes second nature and is something you can autopilot through. But for recent converts, being a new member is their world. It means everything to them. I've tried to remember that and make sure when I'm giving a testimony, I make it sincere and real. 

Well that's it folks! See ya next week!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

Selfies at the Fuqua's for Easter lunch.

Easter basket I got at the Capener's for Easter dinner.

The Fam at Elder Jensen's homecoming.

Crazy Transfers!

March 21, 2016

Dear Family,

Yes! Elder Gough will be getting a new companion tomorrow. Here's the transfer news. I'm staying, Elder Passmore is leaving to be a district leader in Clarksville, IN. Elder Gough is staying and getting a new companion. Owensboro will be split between two sets now. Elder Gough and his companion will cover most of the inner city and my companion and I will cover the rest of the boundaries. 

My new companion's going to be Elder Salazar. He's from Mexico. English is his second language. He's actually from my group. I didn't meet him until I was at the mission home though. At that time he didn't know ANY English. He's had to learn it out here. It'll be interesting working with him. Elder Passmore used to be companions with him. He said he's good and that his English is good, too.

Just like the first week in Owensboro, this last week was pretty crazy. This transfer has easily been the craziest transfer of my mission so far. I had a lot of fun, I learned a lot, and I was able to see the Lord work His miracles more than ever before. I had a lot of fun in this trio. I'm a little sad it'll be over. I'm also sad I was only with Elder Passmore for 1 transfer.

Here's the breakdown

Monday
During our weekly frolf (frisbee golf) practice, each of us lost a disc. Where we play there's a few creeks and lakes that you can easily throw your discs into if you're not careful. For some reason, golf discs don't float. They sink really fast. Unfortunately, we threw our discs into the water. Afterwards we went and bought more to replace them. We also got ice cream to drown our sorrows in.
Later that night, we met with the Sc family and showed them the Easter video. They liked it. For being baptized back in November, they're doing great. I enjoy teaching them. During our visit they all had their guitars out.

Tuesday
We did some biking on Tuesday. It was super nice outside here. We taught a man named Mr B. We first met him back at our Stake Conference last week. The Evansville sisters introduced us to him. Recently, he started dating an active member who lives in Evansville. He started taking interest and had the missionaries over. The sisters taught him a couple lessons in Evansville and then referred him to us because he lives in Owensboro. We had a great lesson with him. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He took genuine interest in it. His girlfriend gave him a replica of the original 1830 BoM for him to read out of. He reads consistently. He said he tries to read 4 chapters a day. Every commitment we talked about, we found he had already committed himself to it before we taught him, like pray, read, and come to church. He told us he and his GF searched out the church here and drove by it. He's such a cool guy! We set another appointment for Wednesday.
Later, we went out on splits again. Elder Gough and I went with Bro Emmert. We helped him with some of his home teaching. I enjoy helping members out.

Wednesday
We met with Mr B again. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and found out his GF told him about it a while ago and that he committed himself to live it 2 weeks ago. The only thing he had to give up was tea. It was crazy to have a WoW lesson like that. Every other time we teach that, we get crap because almost everyone here violates it in some way. Everyone smokes. Later we had a lesson with Miss Al in the library. We went over the 10 commandments. It was another perfect lesson as always with her.

Thursday
We went on exchange with the Tell City Elders. Elder Thompson came here with Elder Passmore and me. We did service for a senior couple who's going on a mission to Washington DC. They're selling their house so they had us over to help move stuff. This service took most of the day. We had two member meal appointments at the same time that night so we had to split up. I went to the Swope's, a part-member family. Bro Swope first investigated early last year and was baptized about the same time I started my mission. Since then he's been a super strong member with one of the strongest testimonies in this ward. When he was first introduced to the BoM, he used it to quit smoking and drinking.

Every time he got an urge, he read it. He finished the whole book in 3 weeks. Since then, missionaries have been working with his wife to get her baptized but she's had a few issues that have been keeping her from it. When I went over on Thursday, I started off teaching the first lesson and surprisingly, I found the reason. She didn't understand the apostasy and why Joseph Smith was important. Of the many times she's received that lesson, she kept missing that part. I taught everything simply to make sure she understood. She had a lot of questions that bothered her that I answered. I've never had to do a lesson like that. I felt the Spirit so strongly as I was teaching. I feel like she's even closer to baptism. Bro Swope was really grateful for the lesson. He would be super happy if his wife gets baptized. 

Friday
We had district meeting. Later we met with Miss Al again. She wasn't feeling too good so we just watched a Mormon Message movie with her. Later we ate with the Gomez's. They're a really nice family. That about sums up Friday. 

Saturday
There was a University of Kentucky (UK) vs. Indiana University (IU/Hoosiers) game on Saturday. And UK lost. Kentucky started burning. We didn't have much success getting in with people. We also found out transfer news. There were many curveballs this transfer all across the mission. Elder Passmore described it as "President Brough took the mission, cut it in half, and shuffled it." We finished the day at Bro Emmert's. He fed us country ham. It was heavenly. 

Sunday
All 3 of us had to give surprise talks on the Atonement because the assigned speakers went to the ER the night before. We all did surprisingly well. We ate lunch at the Fuqua's. Bro Fuqua gave Elder Passmore some of the most "grandpa-looking" shoes I've ever seen. We ate dinner at the Abel's. They fed us fish. We finished the night meeting with Miss S, a LA who has a crazy life. Her daughter happened to be going through stuff when we arrived so they asked for a blessing. As always, I love giving blessings.

I liked this week. I really liked dinner and the lesson at the Swope's. I felt good helping her come closer to baptism. I also loved to see the progress I've made as a missionary. When I first came out here, there would have been no way for me to teach a lesson and answer
questions like that by myself. The Lord truly has been turning me into the person He needs me to be. 

Unfortunately I won't be seeing Miss Al or Mr B anymore. Both of them are in Elder Gough's area. They will be taught by him and his new companion from now on. There aren't really any solid investigators in the car area so Elder Salazar and I are basically reopening it. 

Thank you all so much! You're the best family! Loves!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)

District Photos!

My 2 discs. The left one is a mid-range disc and the right one is a drive disc.

The "frolf" competitors. I lost but it was A LOT of fun!

Another Good Week

March 14, 2016

Dear Family,

Monday
During our weekly visit to Chick-Fil-A, I saw an old man who looked EXACTLY like Grandpa Cox. It was unexpected. Then we golfed and I got my worst score yet at 14. Later, we ate dinner with the Inmans and showed them the new Easter video. It's the one with people from all over the world talking about the resurrection. Next, we read with C and L. They're on track to be baptized but they have word of wisdom issues with tea and coffee so we'll see where that goes.

Tuesday
We met with Co and read with him. We found out he's got some stuff to work on so we're going to have to push his baptism back too. We set another time with him for the next day as we were only there for about 15 minutes. Later that night, we went on splits and I went with Bro. Smith and his daughter B. We tried a few LA's but didn't get in with any. One of them happened to be B's 4th grade teacher. We spoke with her and we found out she's LA because she never read the BoM and never had a testimony. She said she "grew up and found who she was". It makes me sad when I find someone who used to have a testimony but lost it because they found something else or got anti'd. And there are also those who never read the BoM. I guess my point is, don't go less active. If you're a member of the Lord's one and only true church, STAY ACTIVE! I have met less actives who have actual reasons and are great people. I love working with those people and getting them back to church. I'm sad for those less actives who basically apostatize. Don't do that!

Wednesday
We started off TWEing in the pouring rain. Then we met with some less actives. We met for the first time last week and got to know them better. They were your typical old Kentucky couple who are very kind and can talk your ear off. A skill I've had to pick up out here is to tell people I need to leave a half hour before I actually need to leave because it'll take them that long to finish. These LA's today talked, and talked, and talked, and talked, and talked. They didn't even breathe. They just kept taking for an hour straight. It was a good time though. We got to know them better and we invited them to read the BoM. They still love the BoM which is a good sign with a LA. Later, we met with Miss Al in the library with Miss B. 
She's progressing great. She actually wants to be baptized. Miss Bethany is good at fellow-shipping her. They've become great friends. Right after Miss Al, we met with Colton in the library. We found out about even more stuff so we don't know when he's going to get baptized. He still likes the church and meeting with us. We had a good L3 with him. We finished the day showing the Easter video to the Capeners.

Thursday
We had zone meeting in Evansville. There were some good trainings there. I really like big missionary meetings like this because I learn a lot from them. After the meeting, Elder Passmore and I went to Jasper IN on exchange with Elder Neal. Jasper is where Elder Walker was before I got him in Campbellsville. We had a good time in Jasper. Half way up there, we realized Elder Gunnel had the keys to the car with him in Owensboro so we had to go the whole exchange with no car. It actually turned out better for us, because Mr T, an 18 year-old member, drove us around and stayed in lessons with us all day. It was really cool to get that support from him. We ate dinner at the Ahners and Sis. Ahner gave me some soap she made. We finished the day reading Jacob 5 with a returning member. I actually love that chapter. 

Friday
We started TWEing for 4 hours. Why did why did we do that? Well... We originally planned 2 hours, but the Owensboro Elders got caught up so they wound up being two hours late. We walked two hours from the apartment and two hours back. We got back at the apartment right when they got there. We contacted 2 less actives in that 4 hour walk. I've actually contacted a lot of less actives in my mission. They've all been nice people too. We drove an hour back to Owensboro and helped a LA sweep and mop her floor. She had a nifty $200 dollar mop imported from 2020. It worked really well. Later we met with Miss Al but Miss B
wasn't able to come. We read with her and answered more of her Q's. 

Saturday
Not a whole lot happened for the first part of the day. We had the first session of Stake Conference today. Before we went, Bro Shelby fed us dinner. He's a good cook. The talks given were all really great talks. I haven't had a Stake Conference that good in a while.

Sunday
Mr R drove us to the second session of Stake Conference. The talks were good again. After the conference, we ate at the Fuqua's who always know how to kill us with food. Them we met with a man named Ce we contacted a few days ago. We introduced the BoM to him and he seemed genuinely interested. We set up another time for next week. Then we went to the Fedor's for dinner. Miss B was there and she brought Miss Al. Meals in members homes are rare. It was good we were able to do that. We showed them the Easter video.

That was this week. It was another good week in the mission. Nothing extraordinary happened like teaching 6 Muslims or getting eaten by dogs but it was still fun. My favorite part was the exchange in Jasper. I really liked seeing Elder Walker's old area. 

Loves!

-Elder Benjamin Kohkonen Cox (GKLM)