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

So hey hi what a crazy fast week it's been. I think I've only got like 13 P-Days left which is a weird thought thinking that I started out with over 100.

Anyways, last week was indeed my birthday and we shot a spoof video, so I'll be spending some

Awesome surprise 21 Birthday Party W/the Tuaopepe family

approved computer time to edit it today. It was fun, and then we had dinner over at the Tuaopepe's. They are amazing for throwing me a 21st SURPRISE Birthday!! Awesome family and tasty food! Thanks mom for setting that up!

Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Wangaratta Elders since Elder Knight is the District Leader. It was a ton of fun, and I went with Elder Christensen while Van took the other two. Elder Christensen not very confident in tracting but in our tracting adventures he was the one to give out two copies of the Book of Mormon, and one of those people, Nathan, we'll be going back to see tomorrow. It's pretty dang awesome. Oh, and about two weeks ago we helped some Young Single Adult aged girl with a flat tire, and then randomly last week her dad called us with the number we gave her thanking us! So that was pretty cool.

Because I had to ....that's why.

Elder VanWagoner & I in front of the many ads from the Church

Wednesday was cool, nothing but driving down to Melbourne. Took ages for us to find a place to park but we did. Holy cow are the advertisements for the church cool!! AND THEY ARE EVERYWHERE DOWN IN SOUTHERN CROSS!!! I MEAN THEY JUST CARPET BOMBED THE ENTIRE PLACE WITH "MORMON" EVERYWHERE!!! And it's not just ads for the musical, I mean the church legitimately has ads EVERYWHERE!!! So cool, I'll send photos. Kinda stinks that our Zone gets practically NO benefit from it because we're so dang far away from civilization, but that's the way the cookie crumbles: someone's gotta do it! It was cool walking around (which we got permission for) because every one of us (we were with the Echuca Elders) took a Book of Mormon to take pictures with, and within 45 minutes we had them ALL given away! And not because we were trying to give them away, but because people would just come up to us and ask for one. Like what the heck that's a dream come true for this mission! Baptisms gonna SKYROCKET!

Thursday was cool because we got to have a conference with Elder S. Gifford Nielsen from the 70, and it was really revelatory. And his testimony of the restoration and atonement of Jesus Christ is just, wow... I've never seen groups of Samoans get so quite so fast. You could hear a pin drop. It was just fantastic. And then Friday we had an Mission Leadership Council with him, where it's JUST the Zone Leaders of the mission get to stay in a two hour meeting and specialized training with him. He talked a lot about how to lead by example and that we don't need permission for EVERY LITTLE THING THAT WE DO, which I feel a lot of Zone Leaders needed to hear. President trusts us with the things that we do,

Photo with Elder and Sister Nielsen of the 70

and he hasn't got time to approve of every little move we make.

Saturday was fun too because we went on exchanges with the Assistants, Elder Howell and Bennion, but it was basically just drive around for a while, eat spaghetti, and then have exchange review, and then went back to Shepparton. Those two are great, but it'll be sad to see that Elder Howell's gonna be gone in the next few days, but that's mission life and I ain't too far behind!

Sunday we did the normal thing, but we watched the worldwide two hour broadcast regarding the schedule change, which is now official. Two hours of extra P-Day time, an extra half hour before studies (we still have to get up at 6:30AM), extra night time, and it's just a bit more relaxed! I love it because our lives are pretty full on, so this'll help. Some of the missionaries in the Zone are up in arms about it, but they've only been out a few months. I'm really glad for it, it gives us more flexibility to use our schedules better. And plus more morning exercise time.

I LOVE the Gospel of Jesus Christ and love sharing it!

That's it for this week, but I do want to share a spiritual moment that we had this week. So Thursday was Australia day, which to a lot of people here is just another reason to get drunk, and through a series of unfortunate events we had to drive through Melbourne pretty late. I asked Elder Van Wagoner to offer up a prayer that we could drive safely just as we were entering the highway since I was driving, and just a few minutes after driving we noticed something: about 200 feet in front of us was a huge cluster of cars, and about 200 feet behind us was a huge cluster of cars. But we were the ONLY car in between these two herds of cars: we were literally in a type of bubble the WHOLE time on the highway, and we drove like that for nearly 45 minutes. It was nothing short of miraculous. Prayers are amazing, and I know that the Lord answers them. Not always as fast as you'd hope, but I know that they are answered if we have that faith. It's amazing how the Lord works his mighty works. Absolutely amazing. I love this church and this restored gospel, I wish more people would just test the waters because it's so amazing.

OH MY GURSH IT'S EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

That's my week, and it's strange to see that the fuse is getting shorter and shorter. I love the mission but I'm also excited to go home. So many missionaries see being excited to go home as a bad thing, like "Urrhrhur you're not paying attention to the mission!" No, I am, but faith points to the future, and crashing and burning when I get home isn't something that shows faith, so I have to prepare now. But I love the mission and love you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Jacob 2:17-18