Life in Kentucky continues on. One thing that I like about this place is that people take time here. They don't rush from place to place thinking much about time,they just like to relax. I ought to take advice from that. An interesting "cultural view" about Kentucky is that there isn't much flat land out here so people live in places called "Hollows" pronounced "Hollar's". A Hollar is the valley between two mountains where the river flows, this is where pretty much everyone builds their homes and boy do they build their homes in the most craziest of places. You can drive for miles and miles never passing anything but woods and all of a sudden you will see a tiny house way down the mountain. The main thought you think is "what? there are people all the way out here?". Yes there sure are. This main week has been involved with meetings with other missionaries and meeting new people. We met a young man this week that I would like to talk about. His name is Chris. We didn't find Chris on purpose. We had driven up an old hollow back in the boondocks of Kentucky. We had spoken to someone who lived there in the "neighborhood". They weren't home but while walking back to the car we talked to some of the neighbors, we introduced ourselves as missionaries and told them we liked to come by sometime and share a spiritual message. They agreed. We then asked them if any of their other neighbors would be interested in the gospel? They then laughed and said "yeah! our neighbor" they then proceeded to tell how a young man named Chris lived up the hollow but he was an alcoholic and a drug addict. You could tell in their voice that they were joking, but we said "Yep! We'll go see him" They were kind of surprised but we walked up and saw an old beat up trailer. We walked up to it and knocked on the door, we then met Chris. He was in his mid 30's but looked older because of so much alcohol abuse and drug abuse. But when we told him we were ministers and we felt that we should visit him, he almost cried. He then opened up to us right there on his porch. He told us how he had gotten into drugs and how he wished to quit. He then told us something that hit me pretty hard. He said " Ya know I've always searched for happines. I've done everything, meth, crack, pot, and alcohol, but in all my years of finding, I've never found it, does true happiness exist?" I cried in my heart, as we responded yes. We then told him of Jesus Christ and his power to rescue us from our deepest hurts. He smiled and we talked some more.
It's amazing for me to see how God can call me a punck 21 year old kid all the way from Detroit to a hollow in Kentucky to tell a fellow friend that Christ loves him. I'm amazed at the expierences of being a missionary. Who know's what will happen to Chris but we hope to help him as much as we can.
It's great to be a missionary.
Sincerely,
Elder Kochenderfer
It's amazing for me to see how God can call me a punck 21 year old kid all the way from Detroit to a hollow in Kentucky to tell a fellow friend that Christ loves him. I'm amazed at the expierences of being a missionary. Who know's what will happen to Chris but we hope to help him as much as we can.
It's great to be a missionary.
Sincerely,
Elder Kochenderfer