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

Wow, it has been an incredible faith building week. First of all, let's talk about our amazing investigators who are checking out the church, shall we? On Sunday last week, Dean Smith, the first counselor of the Bishopric, referred us to a part member family with two young sons who are 10 and 9 and haven't come to church yet or been baptized. We tried throughout the week to get in contact with them, but the first few days we came up fruitless because no one ever answered. Finally on Thursday they answered the door and let us in. The dad is like 70 years old which kinda threw us for a loop considering how young his two sons are, but he's a member who hasn't been to church in about 25 years. Wayne is his name, and although he wasn't too interested in the church again, his sons were VERY interested, so we taught them and left them with a pamphlet. We came back the next day and talked to the mother about her sons coming to church this Sunday, and although she's very devout to her religion she said that would be okay with her. They did come to church, and because they were pretty young they didn't find sacrament meeting all too entertaining (which I don't blame them: the talks were on tithing), but they LOVED primary. When Rawry, the 9 year old, got out of the two hours of primary and we asked him how it was he said "I like it. I want to come next week!", and the brother agreed.

We met with them and their dad with Brother Bazil Rawiri after church to teach them the Restoration as simply as we could, and Bazil was a huge help. He's the best ward mission leader I've ever served with. We invited the Ozzi and Rawry to be baptized on the 30th of this month, and they said yes, but they said "But we want to learn more about Jesus and the church before we are baptized". My friends, that is no problem! The dad encourages it, and the mom seems okay with it, so we just hope that nothing gets in the way.

We also taught a few friends of the Winfields, another awesome missionary family. The daughter had their 14 year old friend over for dinner, and Brother David Winfield suggested to us in private that we teach her (along with the family) the restoration, because she's been taught by missionaries before, but he thinks it would be good if we taught it again. We taught it, and the spirit prompted us to use the 20 minute restoration video as a teaching tool, and man was the spirit ever felt! She could feel it, and when she described what and how she was feeling we explained to her that that was the Holy Ghost bearing witness to hear of the truth of the things we taught, and she said "I could believe this, I really could believe this. I want to learn more". She told us that she had been taught this by missionaries before, but no other missionaries have taught it so clearly or with the same feeling that she felt. It was a very powerful moment, and we taught her again on Friday the Plan of Salvation, and she believes that as well. We'll try to meet up again with her this week with the Winfields.

Tracting with Liam Winfield (We didn't get
any new investigators, but he loved going with us)

But after we taught her on Friday, we invited Liam, the 17 year old son, to go tracting with us if he wanted to. He was willing to and readily dropped what he was doing to come out with us. My thoughts are, this who family is just so ready to help in every way possible with the missionary effort: I mean, if the missionaries back home wanted me to go knock doors with them for two hours in the hot sun during my summer vacation, I wouldn't be too thrilled, but him, on the other hand, he was so willing to come out and help us. It was so cool to see such enthusiasm in him, and I know he will be a great missionary.

So this week has been one of a lot of reflection of how hard we have worked. Last night we got the callout from the Zone Leaders about who's getting transferred, and we were both like "Nah, we BOTH just got here, so there's no way either of us are leaving". But sadly and tearfully, we were wrong. I'm blessed enough to stay, but Elder Vaiouga is leaving. It broke both of our hearts, and we were depressed to hear we were getting split up. The beginning of the transfer, we haven't stopped working, and our first day of the first week was started in tears because of sorrow and confusion about doubling-in the area, and the last day of the last week we ended in tears. Not because of grief, but because of joy and happiness. We now have two people who are wanting to be baptized this month, and we started out this area with nothing but sand and rubble. We have built this area into something better, and he will be leaving with his legacy upon the ward and upon those two kids. Rawry and Ozzi want to be baptized at Blue Rock Lake (The same lake we had the BBQ at with the Pollards a few weeks ago) because we are having a ward BBQ that day, and they want to be baptized during that BBQ. Vaiouga was VERY depressed that he would be missing that, but we got a call from the Zone Leaders today, and when we told them that we had two investigators who were going to be baptized they said, without us even asking for it "Oh man, if they get baptized we'll definitely make sure you are there as well, without a doubt", so that was miraculous, and we were SO happy for that!

Brothers and Sisters in and outside of the gospel, the church is true! The works of God continue, and no power of Satan can hold it back. As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty. I cannot thank the Lord for the blessings we have received. We have worked and worked and worked and worked, reaping very little for five weeks, then all of a sudden the last week, WHOOM!!!, all this happens. The church is true everyone, I love you all so much, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook
Ponderize: Doctrine and Covenants 121:33