******* LANDON J. COOK ******* Melbourne, Australia Mission April 2015

Hello!!!! I am alive and well!! The MTC is actually pretty terrible so far!!... They've got terribly small rations, snipers on top of every building in case of people who try to escape, and everyone beats me up for my lunch money... :( Nah, I'm totally kidding! I love it here so far: not missing home or anything, they've got all of us totally booked. The beds are mildly comfortable, but I can handle it :) The food is amazing, so I've got to make sure to eat fruit and water with each meal so I don't gain too much weight. Oh! And another thing is, NOBODY ELSE HAS THEIR VISAS FOR AUSTRALIA EITHER!!! So I feel a lot better since I'm not the only one. There are 5 of us going to Australia, and 8 in our district: the 3 others are going to Houston Texas. But my companion is awesome! I made a White Chicks reference and he totally got it, so this is gonna be pretty sweet. He was converted barely over a year ago, so that's REALLY cool! We were talking about the Urim and Thumim and he has never even heard of that, so that was a really cool early missionary-teaching experience.

Anyways, Tuesdays are my OFFICIAL P-Days, today is just a day to email everyone and tell you that I'm not dead yet. But I can feel my knowledge of the gospel and doctrine of Christ growing, and I can't wait to get out of here to start serving.

I'm usually terrible at role-playing, but when I'm here it seems... real. It's hard to explain, but when you're in such a spiritual environment it becomes a LOT easier to feel the spirit and its influence on you and who you're teaching, even though the people you're teaching are only PRETENDING to be investigators, it's pretty awesome.

Sorry I'm not able to send any pictures: When we were told we'd be doing this I didn't have my camera on me, but don't worry! I've been taking adequate pictures! I'll send them on Tuesday :D
I love all you guys, and I'm really excited to start to serve :) Talk to all y'all on Tuesday! God be with you till we meet again!
<Elder Cook>

Day of my farwell talk, Sunday, April 19, 2015

P.S. Look up something called "Dear Elder". Apparently it's like mail, but you send an email however often you want and they'll print it off and give it to me like it's instant mail! I think you need my mailing address, which is:
Elder Landon Jeramiah Cook
MAY04 AST-MEL
2009 N 900 E Unit 102
Provo UT 84602
And you also need my departure date, which is MAY04