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

Well, what a crazy, emotional, fulfilling, and frustrating week it has been! We're at Bishop Cranston's place emailing because the library is closed, but honest to who though, like this week has been like none other. Okay, so for starters we found a new investigator named Monica, and she's in her 50's or so and is really looking to know which church she should be baptized in. She's been in the JW church for about 20 years but has recently left because she doesn't like the way they shun those who do bad things (her words, not mine). She has met with missionaries in the past though and was REALLY enthusiastic as soon as she saw us and to be honest it caught us a little off guard. BUT she's keen, as far as we can tell. We met up with Tyler again but didn't teach him anything because he had to leave, but has been keeping his commitments to read from the Book of Mormon and is finding a lot of interest in it. We are going to try to meet up with Stan this week, so hopefully that all goes well.

So Christmas day was pretty awesome! We unwrapped our presents from family and members, and I

Presents Christmas day :)

ended up getting mainly heaps of study guides, which is exactly what I wanted and needed. There's no greater gift than learning of the mysteries of heaven and of God, and these guides will really help me to gain a greater knowledge of the gospel. We had four feeds this week: breakfast with the Gilberts, lunch with the Lobleys, lunch with the Winfields, and dinner with the Ballantynes. We also had Christmas Eve lunch with Bishop and his family, and that was a lot of fun too! We get taken care of a lot by the members, it's fantastic. Christmas day was pretty warm though, not too hot, only about 95 or so. The week leading up to Christmas has been like 103-104, so 95 isn't all to bad!

We all did so good until it was time to say bye. Landon started
to get emotional and then we all ended up tearing up.
Those moments are the HARDEST!!

Saturday I got to Skype my blessed family, and that was just awesome! It was pretty emotional getting off, but after a minute or two I refocused myself to the work as much as any other day. And besides, Mothers Day is only like four months away, so that's not even that far away!

So, for Despina. All at once in one clean swoop she isn't as keen as we thought she would be at first. She is getting a lot of trouble from her dad for learning about the Mormon church and trying to join, so that's definitely taking its toll. We went with Brother Harkness on Tuesday night to teach the Plan of Salvation, and she really seemed to grasp the idea, and Brother Harkness was a champion at helping us teach. Then we met up with her and her brother again on Thursday, Christmas Eve, and she told us that she is rethinking about being baptized because of the bad vibes shes getting from her dad. We tried to have a good lesson, but her 4 year old autistic daughter kept making TERRIBLY distinctive outbursts basically every 15 seconds. These are really hard moments. Even though she is reconsidering baptism, she still wants to have the discussions. But last night we went to teach as well, and it was just a train wreck. Her daughters were all being disruptive and crazy, and as soon as we tried to watch a short video about what we were teaching, her daughter starts SCREAMING at the top of her lungs for the full eight minute video "I WANNA WATCH HI-5!!!! I WANNA WATCH HI-5!!!". Seriously, and Desi didn't do anything to try to stop her, she just sat there and scram the whole eight minutes. And Desi was trying to kinda bible-bash that the Greek Orthodox church had the priesthood authority because it was started by John the Revelator, so the lesson was trash without the concentration and converting power of the Spirit. We just said stuff it, we'll come back when things are calmed down on another day. We ended up leaving mid-lesson because it really just was not worth trying to teach anymore and we were just wasting her time, and I was getting REALLY frustrated with the daughter: had we not left early, I might've just knocked her out with a quick swing of the Bible. I left without the spirit and in a mood of frustration, and I really didn't like it. Blech, I hate it when we try to teach with the spirit and investigators just don't cooperate. I felt terrible because I had no idea how to answer her questions, and although Vaiouga's a great companion, he has a tenancy to say very little during lessons. I felt frustrated because of my own lack of knowledge, but a few weeks ago I was given the challenge to memorize Doctrine and Covenants 6, all of it. And I successfully did. So at this time the scripture D&C 6:29-31 came into my head, and that helped me out a lot in feeling better. I love the scriptures haha

Our Chistmas Tree and Presents from members and family ♥

Well, I believe that's it for now. Please keep praying that I can do hard work throughout the week. I love you all heaps, hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a happy new year, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook
Ponderize: Doctrine and Covenants 6:29-31