Hello everyone! I have some great news! We have another investigator with a baptism date! Not sure if I told you about her last week, but her name is Maddi Williams, and her mom is very less active and her grandmother is an active member in the ward. Maddi is 12 years old and has actually been coming to church almost every Sunday for the past year, so that's really awesome. She has a date for November 7, and I'm sure she can hit it if she keeps trying for it. No sweat :)

Well, Elder Wade and I are staying in Launceston for another six weeks. I'm not disappointed or discouraged though, because I know that the Lord has some reason that we are together still: whether it be for that one person we meet, or whether it be so that we can learn something from each other, I don't know now, but I'm sure I will know here in the near future. We talked for a little over two hours on what we need to do to improve the area and to improve our relationship, because if we were gonna spend another six weeks together then something had to change and be fixed, so I have a lot of confidence in this new transfer.

Elder Wade, Wijeya and me!

Wijeya still needs some help though... He seems to have given up drinking for good because since we've been over on Sunday he hasn't been drunk once, but the smoking is another thing. He says he is trying, but when we were over he showed us his new purchase of a block of tobacco for making homemade cigarettes. Oh Wijeya... we're trying to think of some ways we can help, but it doesn't seem like he wants to quit all that much. I guess we can only encourage him so much, but in the end it's all up to him and exercising his agency. He does want to be baptized, but his priorities are a little askew right now. He is an EXTREMELY giving man though, and I really think that when he is baptized he will make an amazing member: when we went over to his house to help him move his furniture (he moved up from the mainland and his furniture finally arrived) he tried to pay us $50.00 for our help, but when we refused he just said "FINE! How do I pay it to the church!?" This guy is legit. He also took us to a museum and wants to take us to a seahorse museum like 45 minutes away this Wednesday, and he does so much for us it's awesome. And his family is coming down in December and he really wants them to be a part of the church as well, so that's cool. He did dip our on church on Sunday though, but hey, like I said about agency. We've got a LOT of members fellow shipping him, and a lot of the members are excited to meet him, and we meet with him nearly every day, so we'll just have to look at what we're doing wrong and fixing it.

Me kissin' a kangaroo

Monday we went to this Wildlife Park in Deloraine with Elder Jensen and Calachan ,and that was really cool because there were a lot of free ranging kangaroos around and we got to pet them and feed them our of our hands. It was pretty legit, and all of us even took a swing at kissing one on the lips to get a picture. Germs?... Nah man; memories! 

Tasmanian Devil

We also saw Tasmanian Devils and got some cool pictures of them as well. Two of them in the enclosure even started fighting, so we made gag bets on which one would win, but the tussle only lasted for about 10 seconds. Those little things are NASTY when they get mean.

Me and Jackie Legs!

I Love nothing more than prayers and letters from home and friends! :)

That's the main bulk of the week, but it's been a good week. Keep praying for Wijeya and that he will have the desire to continue to change his life, and he really has improved a lot, we're just hoping that he keeps improving. Thanks for the prayers everyone, keep the faith, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

PS... Hahaha, this mission has SOARED by: I hit my six month mark on Thursday, so I get to burn a tie!!  .... YOU ASK ME WHY!?!?

Apparently this has been a missionary tradition all over the world for decades, I've talked to members who have kids older than me and they're like "So when do you burn your tie?"

6 months: burn a tie

12 months: burn a shirt
18 months: burn a pair of pants
24 months (the night before you go home): BURN A FLIPPIN' SUIT!!!

Elder Wade and I makin' some friends

Elder Wade feeding the baby Kangaroo

Elder Jensen and Elder Wade tryina sneak a kiss from their true love

Me just kangarooing (they have finally accepted me I believe)

These are some baby Tiger Quolls also

known as Spotted Tailed Quolls

Another view of a Tasmanian Devil

And plus, totally forgot to add this everyone: Wijeya took us to a WWI museum with dinosaurs and stuff. We didn't finish seeing around (weren't even close) but we're going back to do it today