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

Hey howdy hey anyone there?

Wi Neera's not actually going home we're training a new missionary in a trio

Another week has been flushed down, and I've now entered the "600 Day" mark of my mission. It's pretty strange. This'll be a short email because I haven't much time and there's not really much to talk about, just more like a ton of pictures. So Tuesday we went to MLC down in Wantirna South and that was pretty good, but it took like a three hour drive so we had to go down Monday night. I thought it was really good, but Van Wagoner had his opinions on it and he kind of watered down my excitement on it saying that he's seen better. I still thought it was great, and it was good to see so many missionaries that I knew. It's really freaking weird and almost uncomfortable being there: so many missionaries that are Zone Leaders have been Zone Leaders for a LONG time, and if they are new then they really seem to know what's going on. And then there's me. I just kind of fart around and do my best.

Wednesday wasn't all that interesting though because Elder Wi Neera used that day (since we were down towards his old areas anyways) to visit people, so while Elder Van Wagoner and Faanunu went to the temple I drove Elder Wi Neera around as his taxi driver so he could visit people from old areas. Pretty boring, but he goes home on Wednesday so I knew how important this was to him.

Lots of missionaries at the Christmas party with The
former Olympian gold medalist and awesome mission
President Peter Vidmar Handstand contest

Thursday was the Christmas party at the mission office, so that was a lot of fun seeing everyone at one place (except for the suckers banished down to Tasmania!). We basically had some kind of Olympic competition against all the Zones which was fun but we didn't win any, and what I thought was great was that President Vidmar joined us and was wearing a polo and some shorts! I love the living heck out of President Vidmar: he feels more like a very motivating and spiritual dad than a Mission President, and people just want to BE better when they talk to him or are around him. I feel if he keeps that vibe about him then this mission will soon soar. He's the man I love him. And plus he's really short and that makes it all the better.

But then once we got home to spend the night at the Narre Warren ZL's place I felt sick and then

President Vidmar and another Gymnist elder in a handstand compatition

ended up throwing up all night. The devil came out of me in about the same quantity of a gallon of liquids. It was fun. Probably from intense dehydration from the sports from the all-day Christmas party but I'm not dead and I feel fine today. Yay! I didn't sleep at all that night and so I just spend the whole day lying in bed trying to get some open-eyed rest in the Narre Warred ZL flatt until I felt good enough to leave back to Shepparton on a three hour drive. The weekend was pretty uneventful to say the least.

Mission Pres. Peter Vidmar and his wife

At Mission Leader Council

So that was my week and this week's gonna be fast too. I've gotta admit being a ZL is fun but it kinda sucks: every dang P-Day is so STRESSFUL and scheduled with stuff to do. I haven't had a "do-nothing-P-Day" this entire transfer and I really miss it because I'm just burnt out to the bone, and then before I know it another busy week is in front of us. No saw sharpening time because every time I want to sharpen the saw it"s like "Aw wait JK we gotta go do some ZL stuff and drive the crap around the Zone for some reason or another". Freaking sucks, I just wanna relax for one day! And next P-Day and the P-Day afterwards are going to be no different because we've got a Zone P-Day next week and then the P-Day after that it's preparing for transfers and being with the members up in Finley because they want us to hang out with then. No lie, it's fun, but holy crap I just want to take a nap dang it... But if I get burnt out and cry myself to sleep in anxiety then it's just "Suck it up buttercup: this is WAR!!!" It's not really that bad but ya it's stressful sometimes. I'm so tired all the time! Love ya's, and as always, God be with you till we meet again!

-Elder Landon Cook