Well, what a crazy, emotional, fulfilling, and frustrating week it has been! We're at Bishop Cranston's place emailing because the library is closed, but honest to who though, like this week has been like none other. Okay, so for starters we found a new investigator named Monica, and she's in her 50's or so and is really looking to know which church she should be baptized in. She's been in the JW church for about 20 years but has recently left because she doesn't like the way they shun those who do bad things (her words, not mine). She has met with missionaries in the past though and was REALLY enthusiastic as soon as she saw us and to be honest it caught us a little off guard. BUT she's keen, as far as we can tell. We met up with Tyler again but didn't teach him anything because he had to leave, but has been keeping his commitments to read from the Book of Mormon and is finding a lot of interest in it. We are going to try to meet up with Stan this week, so hopefully that all goes well.

So Christmas day was pretty awesome! We unwrapped our presents from family and members, and I

Presents Christmas day :)

ended up getting mainly heaps of study guides, which is exactly what I wanted and needed. There's no greater gift than learning of the mysteries of heaven and of God, and these guides will really help me to gain a greater knowledge of the gospel. We had four feeds this week: breakfast with the Gilberts, lunch with the Lobleys, lunch with the Winfields, and dinner with the Ballantynes. We also had Christmas Eve lunch with Bishop and his family, and that was a lot of fun too! We get taken care of a lot by the members, it's fantastic. Christmas day was pretty warm though, not too hot, only about 95 or so. The week leading up to Christmas has been like 103-104, so 95 isn't all to bad!

We all did so good until it was time to say bye.  Landon started
to get emotional and then we all ended up tearing up. 
Those moments are the HARDEST!!

Saturday I got to Skype my blessed family, and that was just awesome! It was pretty emotional getting off, but after a minute or two I refocused myself to the work as much as any other day. And besides, Mothers Day is only like four months away, so that's not even that far away!

So, for Despina. All at once in one clean swoop she isn't as keen as we thought she would be at first. She is getting a lot of trouble from her dad for learning about the Mormon church and trying to join, so that's definitely taking its toll. We went with Brother Harkness on Tuesday night to teach the Plan of Salvation, and she really seemed to grasp the idea, and Brother Harkness was a champion at helping us teach. Then we met up with her and her brother again on Thursday, Christmas Eve, and she told us that she is rethinking about being baptized because of the bad vibes shes getting from her dad. We tried to have a good lesson, but her 4 year old autistic daughter kept making TERRIBLY distinctive outbursts basically every 15 seconds. These are really hard moments.  Even though she is reconsidering baptism, she still wants to have the discussions. But last night we went to teach as well, and it was just a train wreck. Her daughters were all being disruptive and crazy, and as soon as we tried to watch a short video about what we were teaching, her daughter starts SCREAMING at the top of her lungs for the full eight minute video "I WANNA WATCH HI-5!!!! I WANNA WATCH HI-5!!!". Seriously, and Desi didn't do anything to try to stop her, she just sat there and scram the whole eight minutes. And Desi was trying to kinda bible-bash that the Greek Orthodox church had the priesthood authority because it was started by John the Revelator, so the lesson was trash without the concentration and converting power of the Spirit. We just said stuff it, we'll come back when things are calmed down on another day. We ended up leaving mid-lesson because it really just was not worth trying to teach anymore and we were just wasting her time, and I was getting REALLY frustrated with the daughter: had we not left early, I might've just knocked her out with a quick swing of the Bible. I left without the spirit and in a mood of frustration, and I really didn't like it. Blech, I hate it when we try to teach with the spirit and investigators just don't cooperate. I felt terrible because I had no idea how to answer her questions, and although Vaiouga's a great companion, he has a tenancy to say very little during lessons. I felt frustrated because of my own lack of knowledge, but a few weeks ago I was given the challenge to memorize Doctrine and Covenants 6, all of it. And I successfully did. So at this time the scripture D&C 6:29-31 came into my head, and that helped me out a lot in feeling better. I love the scriptures haha

Our Chistmas Tree and Presents from members and family ♥

Well, I believe that's it for now. Please keep praying that I can do hard work throughout the week. I love you all heaps, hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a happy new year, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook
Ponderize: Doctrine and Covenants 6:29-31

The BEST way to decorate a Christmas present from the INSIDE

One Happy Elder :)

Our make shift Christmas tree and our presents

Its starting to look a lot like Christmas...NOT!  It's summertime here remember?

My Companion Elder Vaiouga

Breakfast with the Gilberts

lunch at bishops house

Lunch at Bishop's house, and me wearing a creepy-as Santa mask.

Lunch at Bishop's house

Card games with the Winfields after Christmas lunch

Lunch with the Lobleys

Dinner with the Ballantynes

Something called a Log Cake. I dunno, it's pretty awesome.

Elder Vaiouga has been converted to Pokemon cards

(fun free time activity, but I'm still the champion. Bought 

him his own deck for Christmas and he loves it)

Awesome house with Christmas Lights

More Christmas Decorations

Elder Rock smashin' that tiny little minion

I talked to Elder Wade, my companion back in 


Me connecting with the locals :)

Tasmania, and you remember Maddi Williams in Launceston Tasmania? SHE GOT BAPTIZED THIS WEEKEND!! So happy for her.  Wish I could have been there. 


It has been such an incredible week this week! We have been dying in the heat out here down under, but all goods because Heavenly Father has given us three, yes THREE, new people to teach who have been prepared and are SO ready to hear about the gospel and know more about the Book of Mormon. We've been doing a lot of tracting and door knocking out here, and a LOT of rejection, but it's always refreshing when somebody rejects us nicely. I find it really ironic when people are like "P off, I've got my own religion!" and slam the door, and it's like "Wow, whatever religion you're a part of I'm sure you're not doing a really good job of representing it". Like, whenever a Jehovah's Witness knocks on our door, I ALWAYS make sure to offer them food and water, and if they give me something to read and think about I always do, because that's what I would want someone to do if we talked to them. Anyways, people can be funny sometimes.

 

it's not a good picture, but the road is definitely

glistening because the tar was melting. I love being back

up in the mainland during the hottest part of the summer

So it's been ridiculously hot down here in Australia: Saturday it got to about 107-108ish, so yeah, that was fun. Sister Maxwell gave us permission that day to stay inside as much as we can so we don't shrivel up and die like a couple of raisins, and because the only AC we have in our flatt is a $12.00 standing fan we went to Bazil Rawiri's house to cool off. It probably gets to about 120 in our flatt in the afternoon, because the place is made of bricks and there's this ENORMOUS window that faces the west side of the house and lets all the scorching sunlight in. To say the least, we spend as little amount of time in our flatt as we can. Honestly, it's so hot down here, like just a few days ago the road was melting. Literally, the tar on the road was glistening because it was melting off.

 

Welcome to Australia baby! At least I'm not serving up in New South Wales though, I hear it's about 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) hotter there than here. We've been having a really hard time sleeping when it's so hot in our flatt, so we've recently decided to get our bed sheets wet and sleep like that. Luckily Sister Maxwell is going to get us an evaporative cooler for the flatt, and those things work freezing magic!! The funny thing is though, that yesterday it was hot-as outside when we went inside for our lunch break and not a single cloud in the sky, but when we came outside after an hour the sky was FULL of clouds and it was really cool. What the heck Victoria, make up your dang mind!

Friday we had our Christmas "conference" (when in reality it was just a party) and it was really funny yet weird to see so many missionaries who are newer than me. As of tomorrow, I've been on my mission eight months! I remember in Mississippi when I saw an 8-month missionary and was like "Wow, he's probably got so much experience and knowledge", but now that I'm here it's like "PBFT!!!! I ain't know nothin' 'bout nuthin'! I'm about as knowledgeable as the day I came out!” Just kidding, I've learned a lot, but it sure don't feel like it!

But enough about that, let's get on to how these three ninja future-disciples are going, shall we? Tyler was someone who's got a lot of potential in him. He's 22 years old and has been Christian for a few years, but hasn't gone to church in a while. We knocked on his door and he let us right in and was so nice to us. It was funny, because he was like "Man, it's so hot outside, do you guys want to come in?", and because we had been getting rejected left and right the whole day, I was so taken back that my instinctual response was "Thank man, are you sure?". Why the heck did I say that, what is wrong with me? Anyways, we taught him what the Book of Mormon is and he seemed REALLY interested in it, but we'll have to meet up with him AFTER the Christmas holidays because he's busy, and that's totally understandable. But he did promise that he'd read it before we meet again, and that he'd even pray about it, so we're pretty pumped to keep teaching him!

Stan, a married man in his 30's with 6 sons below the age of 9, was actually a referral from one of the members, and he is the MAN!!! He has a lot, I mean a LOT of questions about the church and is pretty keen on joining, we haven't been able to have an actual sit-down lesson with him yet, but we gave him a Book of Mormon as well, and he and his wife are keen-as to begin reading it. Again, we can't meet up again until After Christmas, but that's all good.

As for our investigator from last week, she is still doing really well. She wants to clean up her life from past religions for good, for her and her children, and just like Stan, she has a lot of questions as well. We taught her the Plan of Salvation last night and she just ate it up, and we are going to teach her again this Tuesday night about the Restoration of the Gospel with Bishop Cranston. Last night as we taught the spirit was very strong, and we invited her to be baptized on January 9th, and she accepted without hesitation!! She said she's been wanting to be baptized since they day she’s met us, so we are really excited for her as well!!!



Bishop Cranston out in front of the library as Santa

Miracles happen. That's all I can say. Honestly, from doubling-in this area with nothing to now having three of Gods children wanting to follow His example by finding more about His church and baptism is just miraculous. We have been working so hard in Moe, and now we are having "joy in the fruits of [our] labors" as described in Doctrine and Covenants 6:31. The church is true everyone, Joseph Smith WAS a true prophet of God. If you don't believe me, take the advice of Matthew in the Bible and test of his fruits, read the Book of Mormon, and see if it is good. I can promise you that it is, and there are many more that can promise that as well. I love you all, I can testify of the true divinity of this work, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Doctrine and Covenants 6:36 

Our flatt Christmas tree literally just a couch cushion set upright. At least it's green

Got my Christmas package!!! Thanks FAMIILYY and Sari!! LOVE YA

Me and my companion spreading Christmas Joy!

Decorated my planner for Christmas day

Elder Babneau, Wilson and I in front of the temple.

Elder Fermais singing O Holy Night, and that was pretty awesome

 

More performances

Got my suit dry cleaned last week, came with a sick-as bag
 

 

The beautiful temple, can't get enough of it, and our Zone gets to do an endowment session on December 30th, so I'm pumped for that because I haven't gotten a chance to go through the temple ever since I've been on my mission!!!

Sister missionaries performing a Tongan dance

 

 

What another week it has been!! I mean, we have been doing a lot of finding here, but nothing is really showing up and coming forth. It's hotter than heck here, but it's all good because the days are swinging by. Can't believe it's P-Day again! We've done a lot this week, but most of it has been door knocking haha. A lot of people are pretty rude to us, but we can both shrug it off and go to the next house with hope, usually dozens of times a day are our dreams of finding someone, ANYONE, who is interested in learning about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ are dashed at the end of the day, but our agency to do work is what's being tested. Everyone else has their agency and we can't change that, but we can control our agency to do the work and find as many people as we can to tell about the restored gospel.

We didn't do really anything last P-Day except play a card game called Magic with some members for a few hours because there's nothing to do around here that isn't 100 km away, but that's okay because that Magic game, as nerdy as it is and sounds, is actually pretty strategic and really fun once you get into it. We did some service for some members during the week as well doing some gardening, and yes mom, I always make sure to put sunscreen on every day I know that we'll be out in the sun for extended periods of time. I ain't about that skin cancer life. The members here treat us amazingly, and we've had a feed every night for the past week, but with all these feeds it makes it hard to prevent gaining weight. I've been getting up at 6:00AM instead of 6:30AM every day to get an hour of exercise in the day, but it still just doesn't seem to be enough. Oh well I guess, bring on the fat man!!!! We have a Christmas breakfast appointment, two lunch appointments, and a dinner appointment, so that day will be fun!!!

As far as investigators go, we only have one person who is seriously looking into the church right now. Paul sadly dropped us, but hey, we planted the seed of faith, and maybe one day in who knows how long he might call up missionaries again, but all I know is that we've done our part with Paul. But, on the other hand, the sister of a member has just gotten out of a really tough situation with her husband (gotta withhold details for everyone's safety, including my own), but she is really interested, REALLY interested, in learning about the church. We met with her Thursday night and she wanted us to fast for her situation the next day, and we promised that we would. We had the Friday set apart just for tracting out a new area, and we knew it was going to be a hot, hot day because Thursday was a hot-as day, but we made the promise anyways. I went to bed praying that somehow the next day would be cooler, and Heavenly Father blessed our prayers with clouds, cold, wind, and rain all that day. Usually missionaries would be depressed by that, but on the inside I was rejoicing: how much harder would the fast have been had we had to do it in 110 degree weather while outside working all day!? Nothing short of a miracle, my friends.

Yesterday was kinda funny though, because my Ward Mission Leader from Hastings (my first area in Australia), Mark Gilbert, came to a baby blessing for his brother's baby, and we were able to catch up and talk, it was pretty cool.

So in general about Australia, you don't see too many Christmas lights hanging on people's houses. It's kinda sad, but hey, that don't bother me because I know back in home sweet home the Christmas lights are more abundant!!!

A lot of work has been happening, but not a lot of visible progress. That's okay though that's okay, because the "worth of [one soul] is great in the sight of God", and if it takes me two years spent to find that single soul, then so be it I'll do it, and I'm glad that my companion is on that same wavelength. I love you all, have a very, VERY merry Christmas season, stay safe and keep God in your crosshairs and you will always find happiness, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Doctrine and Covenants 6:13

JUST A LITTLE MORE RECENT INFO HERE IN AUSTRALIA:

-My current companion is from Samoa and has been out the same time as I have
-I am in Moe Gippsland, Victoria. My address is 9 Stamford Street, but don't send mail there because it's dodgy-as
-Our city in Moe is small, but we cover like 10 other towns, some of them about 130 km away, or about 90 miles, just in our area alone!
-No other elders live in our flatt, just us two in our hot-as flatt
-We're about 130 km away from the mission home, but not in the same zone. Funny that in our area we have places we need to visit that are as far away as the mission home is, sometimes even farther haha
-The only kangaroos I've seen are the one's I saw at the zoo in Tasmania, but I still have yet to see a koala bear
-Nothing else too interesting about the area. It's pretty bush (country side), but there is a sweet-as tram system that we use to get around from city to city so we don't have to burn through our km's. The church provides for the tram costs.

Ross, Andrew, Owen, me, and Mark Gilbert. 

When you see them in person, 

you can just tell that they're all brothers

Playing with Sister Gale Vinyle's dogs, the member we did service for

My Companion and Sister Gale Vinyle's dogs

Liam Smith, a 14 year old member wrestling with his pet ram

My name tag next to some beautiful flowers here in the mainland

Elder Rock hanging off our clothes line inside our house (banananananaBATMAN) HAHA

 

Me with Brother Bryson Worsencroft after he was released over the phone

Hello amazing family! Yes, it is true, I'm long gone from Launceston. Really disappointing, but that's okay because I'm sure I will love this area as well. Tuesday was the day of our Transfer meetings, and it's always depressing seeing these missionaries who have loved their missions so much go home, especially knowing that Elder Worsencroft, my trainer, was amongst those missionaries to go home, and I know that someday soon enough that I will be at that time of my life to go home too.

Me with elder Worsencrost (Yes, we were all crying) REAL men do cry

Tuesday night I got to meet my companion, and his name is Elder Vaiouga, and like Elder Wade he's been out for the same time that I have, he is VERY obedient to the rules of the mission which I LOVE!!! But we are actually taking over Elder Stokes' area and doubling in, and neither of us have ever done that before so it was really stressful: we don't know the area, the investigators, the members, nothing. We were confused on the area, so we decided to have a look at the almighty Area Book... which hadn't been updated since 2011... We. Were. Stressed. For all the prospective missionaries out there, ALWAYS UPDATE YOUR DANG AREA BOOK!!! It saves you from all your work being worth nothing. So because the Area Book wasn't updated, we had no idea who the investigators were, if there were any, so we were lost. And plus, Elder Stokes and his previous companion left the place absolutely THRASHED; broken glass on the floor, rotten food in the fridge and cabinets, it was just terrible. We spent the rest of Tuesday night cleaning up the flatt to say the least.

Because of the terrible Area Book we have been doing a lot of finding and door knocking. It's a lot different than Launceston because people down there are a lot nicer, but that's okay because we know that our efforts that we put in is what matters, not our skill or our numbers at the end of the week. With a total of ten hours of door knocking we found only one new investigator, Paul, but he does seem keen to learn if God is really there and to have us teach him, and we are going back on Wednesday, so PLEASE keep him in your prayers that he will feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost to have us come back to teach him.

A little frustrated on our decisions of where to tract

So the area is really bush, or in America, country. Lots of farmland and open areas. A funny experience happened when we prayed about which street to go contacting on, and we decided to go to some place that turned out to be 30 kilometers away, but we felt like we were supposed to go anyways. The next day we put it into action, and it turns out that the street we felt inspired to go had no houses on it... It was completely bush, but we went to the street next to it instead. It was really hot that day, but we got a good laugh out of it anyways.

So a spiritual experience, kinda. For me, but not for the guy we were talking to. We were knocking on this guys door, and long story short he said he's a Christian and we said so were we, but as we concluded our conversation I ended with my testimony that I love Jesus Christ and what he's done for me more than I love my parents, and he started to get on my case that it's the crazy God-loving fanatics that cause all the wars in the world. First of all, it's not religion that causes wars, it's crazy people with beards and guns that shoot people in the name of their god that causes wards, but that's besides the point. Secondly, there is no doubt in my mind that I love my Savior more than anyone else. Let's put it into perspective, shall we? If my parents, whom I love so dearly, asked me to drop my love, career, educational, and financial life, to go to some random foreign country for two years, proclaim my love for them to thousands of people that I don't even know, get rejected by tens of thousands of people, DO THIS FOR TWO YEARS, and on top of it pay $10,000.00 to do this? No way! But if Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father asked me to do the same thing? My response: Yea Lord, thou knowest I love thee. Even though he couldn't feel my love for the savior, I know that I could.

Me relaxing on the Plane beck to the mainland

The church is true everybody, and I love it. My testimony is bashed from every possible corner and
way, but I will and can be strong. I will not let my testimony falter. I love you all, I love this mission, and I love my experiences. And as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Helaman 5:18

Saying goodbye at the Airport :(

Elder Vaiouga was making Suits on the Loose (silly LDS Mormon movie) references the whole time we were out there..

Our only source of air conditioning in the flatt: a $12.00 fan and a bowl of cold ice water. Doesn't really work, but we just tell ourselves that it does in order to stay alive. It gets like 90 degrees in our flatt in the afternoon, but the huge window towards the west without any blinds doesn't help at all

 As a mother of a son on a Mission ... this breaks my hear!  I am
Grateful Elder Landon Cook has a good spirit and knows his purpose :)

Preaching to a dog (the only living thing besides plants that seem to listen)