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

Ozzi and Rawry Porter, with Elder Vaiouga in his baptismal clothing. It was a fantasic night

Elder Casil, Ozzi, Rawry, and I (from left to right)

SO!!! This has been a ridiculously stressful week for us! Well, mostly me, because we had to plan Ozzi's baptism like six times over, and that really got my nerves grinding. So Tuesday afternoon we got a call from the District Leader saying that he talked to the Zone Leaders and to President Maxwell, and he said that even though Rawry only came to sacrament meeting once, if we feel that he will be an active member of the church then we can go ahead and baptize him with his brother Ozzi. I was really surprised at this, because I thought it was basically protocol that they have to come to church at LEAST twice before they are baptized. Well, I honestly think that both of them would be fantastic members of the church and stay active (they are both very reverent during sacrament meeting and they love primary), so we adjusted the plans to have them both baptized on the 6th this month. We have been meeting with them almost every day this week to make sure that they were prepared, and everything that we taught them they just ate it up! When Elder Johnson, the District Leader, came to do the baptismal interview with them, he finished and told Elder Casil and I "Man, these two are more than prepared: they'll be awesome members!".

But the week, before we get to the weekend, was full of a lot, a LOT of disappointments and discouragements. Teds friend who lives with cussed us out REALLY bad for coming over so often, when that day our only intention was to pop by to say hello to him, that's it. So sadly I think that's the end of Ted, but no worries, because it happens. We also had a part member family we can only see once a week cancel on us the third time in a row, so that was hard. The week in general has just been pretty disappointing when it comes to missionary work, but the only thing that kept us sane was to look forward to Ozzi and Rawry's baptism that we have been planning and scheduling mostly all week. This is a very spiritual moment for them, and we needed it to go smoothly so it was something special and memorable for them.

Zone lunch at Zone Conference, w/Elder Eyring

on the far right (& yes, that's President Henry B. Eyring's

grandson). He's one of the Assistants to the President

Saturday evening comes, and we had Zone Conference in Cranbourne, which is about an hour and a half's drive out from Moe, and by the time we got back it was about 6:00PM, and the baptism was at 7:00PM. Luckily Bishop had already filled the font with heated water, and that's the most important thing to make sure of before the baptism. We got everything ready, including their baptismal clothes and towels, and we just waited for everything to come into place. Ozzi and Rawry were there about 15 minutes early, and we were able to get some pictures with them before the service started. About 50 members came which was awesome, along with their inactive dad Wayne. Ozzi's the man because he brought his friend with his friends mom and sister as well! The service went well, and Elder Vaiouga was the one to baptize him on their request, so that was really cool, and the ward was all excited to see him again.

Sunday was fast and testimony meeting, and the meeting went great. Ozzi and Rawry showed up a few minutes late, and since they were set to be confirmed that day, when 10:00AM rolled around and church started I was nervous and scared as heck that they wouldn't show up! But they did just a few minutes later, and they brought their friend who came to the baptism, Sebastian, with them. Wayne said he wouldn't be able to come because he had to pick something up in Morwell, which is about 20 minutes away from Moe. As the testimony meeting started a family that we didn't expect to see: THE HORVATHS!!! The whole ward was happy to see them and welcomed them warmly with open arms because they haven't been to church in AGES!!! If you remember my email from a few weeks ago, the Horvaths are a family that want to be baptized, and the dad is the only member, but they never come to church, but today they did! And it was a fantastic testimony meeting too, the spirit was ridiculously strong. It was a great day to have so many people come to church, and hopefully things continue to progress from here.

But with Ozzi and Rawry baptized, we don't really have too many other investigators we can meet with on a regular basis, so now what do we do? I'll tell you what we do: we go back to finding more people! It's kinda tough when your most progressing investigators get baptized in a way, because now that they're baptized, it feels like you have to kinda restart when it comes to the work. But that's okay, because there are so many more people out there who are prepared, even though sometimes we tend to have a hard time finding them.

That's my email for the week, and oh what a crazy and amazing week it has been! I love you all and I'm glad that things are still going good. Stay safe, and keep praying for me and the success of those I talk to with whoever my companion is. I know that this church is true, because there is no way to prove it false. You can't! No one can! And that's what makes it stand. I love this gospel and I love this church. Love you all, love you all HEAPS, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Romans 6:16

PS. I hate how fast this mission is passing. It flippin' stinks!!!! But I'm glad that I still have a lot longer left to go, I love the heck out of it here :)