Hello everybody! What a wild adventure these few past weeks have been! We had a few investigators come to church back is Mississippi (2 in fact!) and that made Elder Hill and I pretty dang excited to see people come out. Elder Hill and I were actually invited to go out to a Pentecostal church sermon, and let me just say that was one of the wildest rock concerts I've ever been to in my life! People were running around, screaming, jumping up and down on the chairs saying they got the Holy Ghost, it was wild! I also had grits for the first time before I left for Australia... awful stuff...

"How the heck did I get here??"

But anyways, here I am in Australia, the good ol' land down under! The flights (yes, multiple flights) here

And we're off!

were crazy: From Jackson Mississippi to Houston Texas, from Texas to San Fransisco, from San Fran to New Zealand, and from New Zealand to Melbourne Australia. SO MUCH FLYING!!! And because of the time jump 18 hours into the future, Tuesday was practically nonexistent. There are these little squatty lookin cars down here called Utes, and they're basically the truck version of a smart car. They look absolutely hysterical, but the people down here love em, and they are EVERYWHERE! 

Magpies, those dastardly deadly birds...

There are also TONS of colorful birds here too, but the special ones are Magpies, which are known to dive-bomb peoples heads during mating season and drill their beaks into peoples heads. They ram so fast that it breaks their necks, killing both the person and the bird. Yeah, these little suckers KILL people!!

The three of us ready to take on another week in the Australian wasteland (Not really, it's actually really nice where we stay)

Elder Worsencroft AND Elder Garcia Kempf are my new trainers. My original papa is still in Mississippi, but now I have two step-dads training me. Crazy huh? Being in a trio is weird, especially when we tract, because I feel like when we tract people open the door and there's a MOB of Mormons outside their front door, but luckily we are able to make it work. Elder Worsencroft is from Utah but has gained an awesome accent, and he's been out for 18 months now, so he's really experienced as a missionary. Elder Garcia Kempf is from Spain and had to learn English and has a VERY strong accent, so understanding him can be a little difficult at times. We're white washing this area in Hastings Victora, so there's a TON of tracting to do: we've tracted on average about 4 hours a day, but it's not as bad as in Mississippi because it's colder down here and we keep lively conversations between houses. The people down here are mostly agnostic: meaning they believe in a higher power, but not a God. There was one guy who said "The most realistic thing is evolution, but not like everyone thinks: I think there was a magic mushroom a monkey ate that allowed his brain to expand and he began to make tools, making him the first human"....What in the heck!?
 

       "If I die young...Lay me down on a, bed of roses..."
       (you have to understand Landon's sense of humor)

The first few days I had to live with what was in my carry on, because my luggage didn't show up until a few days later. Luckily I followed my dads advice and put a few pairs of under garments in my carry on, so at least I had clean underwear. Thanks dad! 

Melbourne Australia Temple

We've tracted into a few good people and have set return appointments with them, but one in particular is a really cool story. We tracted into a lady in her 40's or so named Jenie, and at first she didn't want to talk to us, but we just started out with normal conversation about her life, our life, her hobbies, and our hobbies. She said she was busy and about to go vacuum out her car, but she put the vacuum down and we talked on the front porch. The sun started going down and the temperature started dropping, and I twas thinking "Oh no, she's gonna send us away because she wants to go inside because it's cold". Nope! Instead she said "Whoo, it's getting chilly out here, let me go inside and grab my jacket real quickly". We talked for a little bit more and invited her daughter to come outside and listen to what we had to say. Her daughter is 16, but looked more like she was 19 or 20. Her name is Danielle, and she had a TON of questions about religion, if there is a God, why He allows suffering, etc., all great questions. We taught and talked on the doorstep for about an hour and a half, and we plan on returning for an appointment on Tuesday night during splits (Elder Worsencroft is going to go, but hopefully all goes well with lesson two!). So Elder Worsencroft told me that a lot of girls down here that look to be 19-21 are usually only 15-17, which can be REALLY confusing at times. A lot of them are very attractive, which makes it kinda sad because when they DO reach the age of 19-21 most of them already have a kid or two. But that's why we're here!!!

Funny poem that was in our apartment

We also met an older couple in their 80's or so, Ron and Irine Burgess. They let us in pretty quickly, which around here is abnormal. Apparently they've had good experiences with missionaries about 2-3 years ago where they did TONS of service for them. They offered us tea or coffee, but we declined and she gave us this drink called Milo instead, which is basically Australia's version of mild hot chocolate. She made the drinks and gave us cookies as well! Man these previous missionaries must have treated them pretty good for them to be so positive about meeting us. We taught them a little bit about the Book of Mormon and God, and left them with a copy of their own to read which was awesome, and we have a return appointment with them this Saturday.

So apparently I learned during church that "hell" and "damn" aren't technically curse words here, which is strange. I've heard members and even the bishopric say it. Doesn't mean I'm gonna go around saying it, but it's really funny that those words aren't of much worth here. "Bloody" and "Bugger/buggah" are much, MUCH worse.

Got a blessed care package from the family before I was sent on my way!

Well I think that's it for these past two weeks, but I'm really excited to serve with these two missionaries,
they are really on top of things and the three of us work hard as heck. And this area is already starting to show a lot of promise and great amounts of potential with new investigators and contacts. TTFN, tah tah for now, I love you guys, and as always, God be with you till we meet again
-Elder Cook



The pictures below are all from when I was back in Jackson, Mississippi.  

AWESOME items in my care package

The care package I got from my family

Brother Broderick (The Branch mission leader in Mississippi)

President Miller (The branch president in Hazlehurst Mississippi)

Lunch with President McDonough and all the departing missionaries

One last breakfast at Waffle House before I got shipped to the land down under

We marinated hot dogs in Jalapeno juice because we were wondering if it would work, which it did

Elder Hill would always pick up loose change on the street. We took it to a coinstar in Walmart and it totaled about $16.00

Elder Kulu and I (He's an awesome Tongan bro)

HUGE Pizza from Fox's Pizza Den with Elder Ah Ching and Davis. It was AWESOME!!

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A funny story about Elder Rock (Dwayne Johnson) On Landon's 19th Birthday his brother, Austin, got this action figure for me and it was the only thing he got me for my birthday.  Well, needless to say Landon thought it was dumb and was a bit disappointing.  Well  Austin thought it was a MUST to add to his care package and we are thinking Landon was really excited that Austin sent it.  Landon has a pretty good sense of humor.  Enjoy these silly pictures. :) 

Elder Rock is ready for another good day of finding investigators

Elder Rock, get out of there, that's where my planner goes!

Elder Rock getting his scripture study on

Planner covers I made and were made for me

Saw this and thought of our two chihuahuas at home