Well haylo and g'day maties it's time for another episode of "Locate Landon"! Yeah so we had transfer news last night and even though Elder Ching's been here for like 5 months he'll be staying with Elder Fermanis from my intake. I was honestly pretty gutted to hear that, because it was looking to be a really busy transfer here in Eltham, and I've finally started getting used to this place and have actually gotten GOOD at street contacting. Freaking days man, it's tough! I've gotta spend all day packing my stuff up, and since I'm the DL I've gotta drive up to Epping to check the other flatt for it's cleanliness and stuff, AND I want to visit other members and take pictures with them today. Ugh, it's gonna be a nightmare of a day today. I'm going to Seymour in Craigieburn Zone with Elder Cuenca as my companion. He's from the Philippines as well, and since my last Philippino companion was pretty stinky I'm not too hopeful for this one, especially since Casil follow-up trained Cuenca. I guess we'll just have to see what happens though. I've been out a good while longer than he has, and I'm still the DL, so I think I can exercise some righteous authority over him if he steps out of line.

BUT for this week, it was one heck of a way to go out with a bang! We've re-established contact with a part member family and the kids really want to come to church and be baptized, and Elder Ching and his new companion will get back in contact with them on the 25th (cry). We also had our Zone P-Day at the beach and that was fun, and we just had a BBQ and hung around at a park for a couple of hours. Nothing too scheduled out, more just relaxing and hanging out which I loved. We also went on exchanges and I went with Elder Howell, who's been out for 18 months and has only served in one area his whole mission. But that's because he's one of the only few Vietnamese speaking missionaries in the mission, and there's only one area for Vietnamese ZL's to be in, and that's in Footscray. Even though I was in his area and I can't speak a lick of Vietnamese I learned tons from him, especially about street contacting, and that it's literally all about being more confident than they are. He told me how Batman was originally afraid of bats as a child, but to remove that fear he became the bat, telling me that I must get over my fear of rejection by being so overconfident that rejections slides off me like a marble on a oiled table. He told me two things that I need to tell myself when I street contact, and that's "I fear no man" and "I own these streets. Not that guy, not that lady, but me. I DO." And man has that helped me out so much! He's the man, and a big part of the reason I'm gutted to leave is because I'm no longer going to be able to serve underneath him. But I guess I learned what I needed to, and the Lord will place my on His shoulders to my next area.

So that's the main chunk of the weeks highlights. There's more but I really don't have time to write about it all. That's okay though, because I still love ya! Talk to you all soon again in my new area, which I'm pretty sure is an area full of Polynesians. You know what that means right!? That's right: my face and body is going to swell like an oversized marshmallow. This fat boy slim will now become fat boy. I'll do my best to fight it off, but rarely does anyone ever escape a Poly area without getting fat. Ugh... Love you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Doctrine and Covenants 123: 16-17

P.s. Man Austin's green tie is Awesome!  Plus it makes me so happy to see him at the MTC!  He's the man and I am sure that he will be protected.  I was reading my patriarchal blessing the other day and i saw that i was promised that i would be protected, and i was reading in Mosiah that while the sons of mosiah were on their missions they were also promised by the Lord they would be protected.  Ammon even had someone come up behind him to kill him with a sword and the Lord just struck him dead (Alma 19:22)  I am protected because the Lord has promised it, and even though I will go through hard times I will return home safely and unharmed :)