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

Wella haylo everyone! It has been a wonderful week down here in the land down under. But then again, EVERY week I'm able to convince myself of that. It's been a pretty dang snazzy week of hard work and a lot of fun, especially since I got to Skype my family yesterday and all that good stuff.

Disfigured family photo

So last week P-Day we didn't really have much to do, so we just spent the day wandering around the really small shopping area and found a knock off shop where basically everything was fake that tried to pass off as genuine. One of the funniest things there Elder Holt and I got a kick out of was that there were these little $0.60 chicks there that were basically fluff balls with feather wings and tiny bead eyes, and they would've been a cute idea had they not all been horribly disfigured in one way or another. We probably spent about an hour in that shop alone just going around laughing at everything in the store and crying because all this knock-off stuff was just too great. I'll send pictures.

Thursday was Zone Meeting and the ZL's asked Holt and I to do a dual-training on how to be diligent, and that was pretty funny because once we got there we realized that the only ones doing trainings were everyone with leadership positions: and then there was Holt and me doing a training. Nothing really too much to talk about there.

Skyping with the family was a blast! The Winfields were kind enough to donate their house to us to

Picture from the other side! From the Windfields in Australia

allow Elder Holt and I Skype at their house, and we just had an absolute blast doing it. We got to Skype Worsencroft for a few minutes (my trainer), and that was pretty cool too considering he's basically IGNORED ME SINCE I WAS BANISHED TO TASMANIA!!! And plus he still owes me $8.00 for a bet we made when we were still companions. I'm sure that's why he's been ignoring me. Skyping was great though, it was awesome to be able to see that my family is still doing well and everyone back home is still on track for awesomeness! How blessed I feel to know that all of my family is active in the church, because so many times I meet other missionaries with less active or inactive family members, and I just consider it such an astonishing blessing that my siblings and parents and grandparents are all stalwart members of the church. When I got off the Skype call I didn't even cry a single bit! Nope! Not even a widdle bit! But I think that's because I love my mission and am so happy here. I DON'T NEED MY FAMILY!!! Just kidding love you guys.

Love this Windfield Family and My Companion, Elder Holt

Ian, Manoa, Ozzi, Rawry, Paul, and all the other people we are teaching are seemingly going well. We met up with a less-active member, Luke, who's in his 30's and is on some SERIOUSLY hard drugs and has been most of his life. We're not sure how much progress can be made with him because he has some really weird beliefs, like how he and his 10 year old son are prophets and how they are the only people on the earth who can save the world from wickedness, and that he's Gods bodyguard and things like that. Every time we meet him he's either seriously stoned or drunk, one of the two, and I think the drugs have bored such a huge hole in his brain that there really isn't a difference in his personality when he is or isn't high. Don't do drugs.

My Family (excluding Danielle at BYUI)

Things are still going well down here in Australia, and it's sad to think that as of today this transfer is halfway done, and then I move onto my 10th transfer. Holt and I are somehow praying and hoping that we stay together for at least one more transfer after this one, but that would mean that I would stay in Moe for five transfers, and to stay in an area for that long is very rare. But we are both still hopeful, because this area could REALLY use two fired up missionaries here. But as always, only as the Lord allows it. If either of us are needed somewhere else to better further the Lords work, then it can't be helped. But that's about it over here this past week, and this upcoming week will be another fast paced one because Wednesday we will be in Wantirna South for Elder Holt's Golden Review, and then the next day we will have the Zone Temple trip, so that's two full days in a row out of our area. It'll be great though. Anyways, see y'all's later, love you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook