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

Shells I collected in the sand. There are such beautiful shells here

My name tag is under water. This is how clear the water is here.

It's been a crazy of a roller coaster week for me! Last P-Day we went up to the Gorge again with the Deloraine Elders because neither of them have been able to go, so that was fun. The temperature has started to rise and the days are starting to get longer, and now because of that it's a LOT easier to get up at 6:30am every morning because it's warm and bright outside. Monday night we also had five other Elders spend the night in our flat because we had Zone Meeting in the northern part of Tasmania, so a lot of Elders from the South Tasmania District spent the night at our flat. All seven of us sleeping on the floor in the front room, that was fun. As soon as everyone got to our flat Monday night they ALL headed for the kitchen, but I wouldn't be too happy if they all ate our food, so I had to physically shove everyone out of the kitchen so I could make a few platefuls of inexpensive meals. SO stingy, am I.

Zone Conference in Tasmainia.

Tuesday was Zone Meeting, and that was pretty good. Tuesday we also tracked into this young mother who said to come back at another time, but she said the only reason she didn't let us in was because her husband wasn't home and because her three young kids were pretty sick. When we did come back on Friday the dad was home but the mom wasn't, but the dad was really nice to us and said to swing back by when the kids aren't sick anymore and both of them are home. They're a young family and hopefully they're as keen as they appear. Keep Emma and Brendan in your prayers please!!!

Wednesday we got the assignment to do the prelude music for this Saturday on the 27th. But not just play it on the piano, but to sing it as well. Who sings prelude music anyways? Whatever, so Elder Wade is singing and I have to play the piano AND sing it. Well, let's see how that goes. We've had to spend a lot of time at the church this week practicing, but that's alright too.

So a lot of the area that we've been trackting is just around our own neighborhood, and a lot of missionaries don't like doing that because they say "Oh, well I'm sure these streets have been over-tracked because missionaries live here", but it's funny because since practically every missionary thinks that, the exact opposite is true! A lot of our neighbors have seen missionaries, but have never have their door knocked on. A lot of them rejected us, but rejected us very politely and on good terms, and that makes missionary work a lot more enjoyable and easier. Of course, it'd be even better if we could teach them, but if they are going to reject us I'd rather them do it nicely.

Saturday we were invited for a single adult luncheon, and in my mind I thought it was a YSA

All of us singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" from Lion King

activity, or young single adult activity, but I was caught a little off guard when I walked in the gym in the church and all these old people were sitting there. Well, it was still a lot of fun, and there were about 40 oldies there because it was a stake activity. We all participated in singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonightt" as a crowd, half of us going "A-Weem-oh-wep-a-weem-oh-wep" and the other half going "Ayeeeeeeeyeeeyeeyee-abum-bum-bawayy", so that was pretty fun too.

The beautiful young ladies at the single adult luncheon!

I have to say that I am as happy as ever. I couldn't be happier, and that isn't an over-exaggeration or a lie, I really am happy and loving my mission :) I think that's why it's flying by so fast!

Lots of work has happened on our parts, but right now I think we're going through a little bit of a drought: planting seeds all the day long but only harvesting a few shriveled up fruits every now and then. Oh well, that's missionary work sometimes, but we have to work as hard as we can through the easy and tough. I love you all, have a blessed week, and as always, God be with you till we meet again!

-Elder Landon Cook

Ps: a little more info about my mission.

I communicate with Mission President Maxwell only every blue moon, and it's not just for the Tas missionaries, it's for everyone. We email him at every P-Day, but if he were to communicate with EVERY missionary often nothing would ever get done on his part. I was able to talk to him last Saturday after Stake Conference, so that was really cool. I love President Maxwell so much. He goes home I think in June, so a little more that two years.

Our ward has about 60 people.

There are 22 Missionaries in all of Tasmania, which is crazy because Tasmania itself is almost the size of the mission back up on the mainland. And yeah, they tend to leave us here for a while to serve, but with every case there's always an exception. For example, Elder Womsley was Emergency Transferred here to Launceston but left back to the mainland after only two weeks.

It's warming up here, but some days are a bit colder than others still. Sometimes have to put my jumper back on. (Jumper: Australian for jacket)

The city is pretty large, in our area alone it takes about an hour to get from one end to the other by car, so obviously there's no way we can get to all of it with the limit of kilometers we have. There are a lot of small cities here on the island.

My favorite food is vegetables. Seriously. Except tomatoes. Tomatoes still suck.

Macka's (or McDonalds) is pretty big, but KFC is even bigger here in Australia. Pizza, eh, not so much. That's about it.