WOW what an amazing week it has been! So I don't have much time today as I would appreciate, but the libraries were closed yesterday for some public holiday. Anyways, I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter! Strange to have it in March instead of April.

Went to a place called Walhalla up north for last P-Day w/ The Winfield Family

But MAN!!! The one thing I want to talk about right now is Ian! Seriously, he is so prepared! He is so ready to be baptized, and he heard the story of the missionaries in the Brussles bombing and because of that he wants to be baptized! He has had some seriously strong powerful and personal moments with Heavenly Father this week, and has kept ALL commitments and gone above and beyond that of normal people looking into the church. We have taught him a lot with the help of Ross Gilberts who is basically the man at everything under the sun, but we have taught him so many times this week and he loves it. He came to all hours of church and loved all of it, and we showed him the baptismal font which only confirmed his excitement to be baptized. Ian, over the past five days, has read all the way from 1 Nephi Chapter 1 to Mosiah 22: THAT'S OVER 180 PAGES!!! IN FIVE DAYS!!! And he loves it and is absorbing so much from it! How the Lord has prepared him to be taught and us to teach him. So many miracles in him, and he is the man. I can't say it enough. We're going to go teach him today the Word of Wisdom because he does smoke and drink occasionally, but I'm sure he'll be able to kick it in no time at all.

Wednesday we went to the doctors probably for the last time for my eye, and the doctor gave me the okay to wear contact lenses again but to just be careful with them. I'm going to wear them probably every other day just for safety, and I'm starting to actually like the way these glasses look on me.

Not enough time to talk about much else, but there isn't really much else to talk about. Casil and I are doing well, although it can be tough sometimes. That's okay, it prepares me to be a better husband and father for the future. The transfer ends in three weeks' time, so HOPEFULLY I finally get the champion missionary I've been waiting for as a companion. Love you all tons, I'm grateful for all the prayers you have sent in my behalf and for our investigators, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

Austin... This ones for you!

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Doctrine and Covenants 1:31-32

I have received many messages from members in Australia and the message below is from Suzy Winfield.  This family has taken such good care of Elder Landon Cook and his companion ♥

Elder Casil and me at Wahalla

Elder Cook and elder Casil are amazing. They are taking Liam (our son) on a mini mission with them for a couple of days this week and next week. I am so thankful to them for taking Liam on board to have a sneak preview about what a mission is like. Elder cook is such a diligent missionary - he is not happy unless he can find people to teach - a great example for Liam - Liam is turning 18 in July so this will be a wonderful experience for him in preparation for his own mission next year (school finishes at the end of November for year 12s here) I hear that elder cooks brother is the same age. How time flies!!! He must be getting excited about serving a mission as well. Take care xx Suzy

Wahalla

Wahalla

Wahalla

Walhalla

Wahalla

Missionary work can sure be tiring

Elder Casil lulling Elder Take to sleep

Elder Johnson and I went on exchanges. It was pretty awesome.

Ran over the Easter bunny. Aw shoot

 

Hey howdy hey it's time for more of my story! A few big things have happened this week, but because a lot of those big things happened away from our missionary work. We went to the temple on Friday, and man I just love going to the temple! And also because Elder Casil's ankle is still crooked we haven't been able to do much missionary work. And he still very much enjoys his three hour siestas during the indoor periods of time. BUT we were able to go to Ian's twice this week, and one of them was with Ross Gilbert, probably one of the best fellow-shippers in the game! He was a huge help in teaching Ian, and not only was he such a big help but he took our challenge to invite him to church this Sunday, and on top of that he also invited Ian to dinner at his house next week on Monday along with us missionaries! Ian is doing really well, but he keeps forgetting to pray about what we have taught if it's true, and that's what will confirm for him the truthfulness of the message. But he keeps other commitments to read verses and parts of the Book of Mormon, and he is really looking for the truth. We'll just have to keep working with him in all that we do. Ozzi and Rawry are doing good too, and I bought a "Book of Mormon Stories" picture book at the mission office a few days ago, so we'll be relying on that to help them teach.

I think the cold weather is finally starting to set in, because on Friday we got stormed with heaps of wind and rain that went until Saturday night, and although it's sunny outside the temperature isn't rising or changing by the hour like it usually does. I think the ridiculously hot weather is finally over, but then again, I could be wrong. The weather has given us like four false alarms on winter within the past month or so, but I really think fall is finally upon us!

But last week P-Day we actually did something awesome! We went to this place called Phillip Island, which isn't in our District but we got permission to do it from the Zone Leaders. It was really cool because we got to go see pelicans being fed, we went to this awesome place called A-Maze-N-Things, went through a giant life size maze, played mini golf, went to some place called Cowes Pier, it was awesome. But since I'm still confined to using my glasses I had to wear them...

And like the clutz I am I ended up dropping them off the pier and into the ocean. I was pretty gutted about that because now I was blind, but luckily I was able to buy a second pair for only AUS$39.00, which is only about US$30.00. Pretty cheap for prescription glasses! Liam Winfield got one heck of a hilarious picture of my facial reaction when I dropped them into the water.

Pretty slow week in total, but Elder Casil's ankle is healing up nicely and is doing well, so we should be able to get back to track on working again this week. Love all-a-ya, have a great rest of the week, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Doctrine and Covenants 42:42

Saw this baby driving down the road on our way to Phillip Island

Cool outdoor climby stuff

A-Maze-N-Things illusions

More A-Maze-N-Things illusions. Where'd mah head go

had fun golfing

A-Maze N Things outdoor maze

Picture with the pelicans

At the Cowes Pier

And that picture that Liam took that gets EVERYONE to laugh (the moment my glasses fell into the water)

My new glasses luckily were ready for pickup on Saturday, and here they are (they're actually really nice)

Hey everybody! This week was a bit interesting, but nothing too much has really happened. But there are a few stories I'd like to tell:

Tuesday we had a Zone Meeting, and the ZL's stressed that before we go to any dinner appointment with a member that we need to tract their street or a nearby street. Well Casil and I took that to heart, so that very night we went to our dinner appointment two hours early so that we could go tract the nearby streets. It was a ridiculously hot day, and as we tracted we couldn't really find anyone who was interested, which really seems to be the case around here. BUT after sweating the living heck out of ourselves we tracted into this guy named Ian, and after talking with him for a few minutes he actually let us inside so that we could teach him, and that was something that RARELY happens to us! He is in his 40's or so, and he has been "looking for God" for the past two months, and he has never heard of Latter-Day Saints before, so he took us in and really wanted to hear us out. We taught him the Restoration, and he thought it was absolutely amazing that after so many centuries of the gospel not being on the earth that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ actually showed themselves to Joseph Smith, and he is really excited to learn more it seems. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a commitment to read the Introduction and the Testimonies, and anxiously he accepted the challenge. IF he keeps his commitments there is no doubt in my mind that he will rapidly progress. There's just one thing that's a problem: he's also been meeting with Jehovah's Witnesses recently, and not that I have anything against them, but as soon as they see the Book of Mormon in his house, they are going to LOAD him with so much false information and lies about the church it won't be funny. They really seem to be spiteful towards our church, and it's so tough because I hate badgering on other churches for that exact same reason: because I don't want to be attacked with false information, I don't want others to do the same for me. But it happens anyways. Anyways, we are going to meet with him on Tuesday afternoon again, and I really pray for him that he is able to discern the truth from the lies and to rely on the Lord for answers, not the words of man.

Us with Ozzi and Rawry Porter, our two newest members in the ward!

Nothing too much happened throughout the week, but we were able to meet with Ozzi and Rawry twice and talk about the sacrifices that Heavenly Father will sometimes require us to make to test our commitment to Him. Ozzi is doing great, and Rawry seems to get the concept strongly, but being a nine year old boy he made the remark "Yeah I'll do what God wants me to do. Unless he wants me to swim through poo, I won't do that"... He gets the concept.

Saturday we went to go play basketball with some members and less active members and their non member friends, so it was meant to be a really big missionary moment. But only one member and his non member friend showed up, but we played anyways. We played two-on-two, and considering the member, Callan, has played on the Australian Deaf Olympics basketball team, he is amazingly good, and his friend is a b-ball champs as well, so it was Ryan and me vs. Callan and Casil. We played pretty good, but we only played half court, but as we played Elder Casil rolled his ankle really badly, and to make matters worse I stomped on his foot right when it rolled, so now his right ankle all on the outside is bruised all up and down. Ugh, looks like we'll have to spend a lot of resting time in the flatt. AGAIN!!!!!!! But that same day was Casil's year mark, so we went to Callan and his wife Catherine's place for dinner and for him to burn his shirt, it was pretty sweet. My year mark is just in a little over a month, and before I know it it'll be here!

Well that's it my lovely family and friends, my mission is awesome! But my eyeball is basically 100% healed now, but I have to stay in my glasses for a while just in case. We are headed on our way to someplace called A-Maze-N-Things on Phillip Island with the Winfields, and from the looks of it it's AWESOME!!!! P-Day finally won't suck!! Hahahaha but seriously, the Winfields are the best. Love you all, hope you have safe rest of your week, and I will do my best, and KEEP PRAYING FOR THE MISSIONARY WORK HERE AND AROUND THE WORLD!!! The world needs the restored gospel severely, and only we can teach it! Anyways, Love you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Romans 8:28

Good ol' study time

Casil so sad to burn his good shirt

The one year mark burning ceremony :)

Had the scar formed literally one millimeter to the left, I would definitely have some sort of blindness in my right eye for the rest of my life

Well there's not really much to report that happened this week. Wednesday we had a Mission Tour, and Elder O. Vincent Haleck was there as well, and it was really cool because heaps of missionaries were there. Basically all the east side of the mission was there in that one chapel, and since there aren't any more transfer meetings that's the first time since I've been back on the mainland to see such a huge gathering of missionaries there. SO many missionaries, probably about 100 or so, it was awesome. The funny thing was that Elder Haleck talked mainly about staying active AFTER the mission, because that's apparently a huge problem down here in Australia. Sad to say, but a MAJORITY of returned missionaries go almost instantly less active. What's the deal with that people? But yeah, it was great to see so many missionaries there and to kick back for a while and see them all.

Friday we spent almost all day making our way to the doctors and back out in Moorabbin, taking bus

Look there is a street named after me here in Melbourne

then train then bus then walking in order to get there. The doctor said that my eye has been healing "miraculously" and that I should be completely healed and 100% off the drops in the next few weeks. He said that since the scar isn't on my pupil but is in front of my iris, that I won't have any visual damage whatsoever, temporary or permanent. Think about it though: had that scar formed literally one millimetre to the left, I would definitely have some sort of blindness in my right eye for the rest of my life, but because Heavenly Father was taking care of me and watching out for me, my vision is preserved.

Saturday we went to a Seventh-Day Adventist church because one of our new investigators, Tara, invited us to go. It was pretty cool, and they actually believe a lot of the same things that we believe, except for the whole "Sabbath is Saturday" thing, which I don't think is that much of a big deal. But seriously, the two are very close, like they even strictly obey the Word of Wisdom like we do in taking care of our bodies, it's awesome! The pastor, Andrew Jasper, is actually from America, so I got to talk to him a bit before the sermon actually started. They had a Bible study class before the sermon that Casil and I went to, and it was funny because we were the biggest participants in it. We didn't quote anything from the Book of Mormon though, because it's their place of worship and I don't think they would've appreciated it if two missionaries came in and started preaching other stuff to them. Gotta be respectful.

Sunday night we had dinner with a less active family, the Donoghues. They're a sweet-as family, and Brother Donoghue is the man! He's basically an active member at heart, but his wife has completely lost all faith in it and doesn't want their young children to be raised in the church, so as to prevent any arguments he doesn't go to church himself. The confusing thing is that he served a good mission and she actually used to be a temple worker! So it's like... where do the wires not connect there? Anyways the kids really like us and we shared a short message after dinner about how reading from the Book of Mormon and praying as a family is important. Brother Lee was all ears, but Sister Donoghue was on her phone the whole time. AAAUUUGGGHHH!!! So frustrating! Why!?

But yeah, other than that, there seriously isn't really anything else to report in the side of missionary work. We've been doing a good amount of tracting this week and trying to find people, but it's hard to raise good crops when the ground is no soil at all: just tough rubble. BUT that's okay because I know that doesn't even matter! All that matters is that I do MY job, and the Lord accounts for that! I'm sure that the work we are doing is preparing their hearts for future missionaries that I might never even know about! SO all I gotta do is just keep my chin up and keep working at it and I know that I can stay happy! This mission is a growing experience to help me form good habits and for me to continue to be more fully converted to the gospel, and I won't let anything get in the way of it, not even nothin'! So yup, that's this week, and hopefully this week is a bit better! I love you all heaps, hope you are getting closer and closer to the gospel, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Doctrine and Covenants 88:22

Having fun out tracting

Elder Casil action figure

Tried to do some souvenir shopping last week, but out here in the bush everything is expensive-as!

Washin' the car on P-Day last week

Elder Casil Sleeping while traveling to my Dr. Appt for my eye

Relaxing park tine while waiting for the train from the Mission Tour. Boys will be boys!