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