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

So hello to all friends and family back home in the truest land of the truest promise! So as far as this week goes, as always immersing yourself in the work makes the days blaze by. If you want your years to go by fast and you want to be 80 years old before you know it, then just immerse yourself in missionary work. It's the absolute best!

This week's been great, and we've been doing a lot to try to get to know the members this week since Sunday last week was Stake Conference. So as far as last Monday goes, for the most part we just sat in the flatt and played Pokemon because the weather was absolutely crummy and we're not really sure of what there is to do in this area. It was the greatest, and I have yet converted another companion to the game wahahahahaha! We also went to the beach too since this Zone is known as "beach bum" Zone since we're all just entirely surrounded by water everywhere, so that was pretty fun. I love going to the beach, but the water was really dang choppy because of the windy weather.

Tuesday we had like five different guys from Salt Lake City come to our mission, and even though they weren't all General Authorities per say it was definitely a RARE occurrence that so many would come. It's all because of the massive amounts of advertising that the church has been doing in Melbourne, and I'll send some photos of that all. Brother Steve Allan, the head of the entire missionary department was there, as well as Brother Droube, the head of all the church's advertising, and a few of other "high-ranked" guys were there too. It was pretty intense.

Singing Called to serve with all the missionaries

It was pretty awesome because for about two of the four hours we were inspired to do better, and then the last two of the four hours we were totally reprimanded that we needed to do better and try harder by Brother Allen. He totally RIPPED into our mission, saying that he's "never seen a group of missionaries with such a lack of urgency", and the fact that so many of the missionaries didn't even participate when we were asked questions didn't even help out. Most of the missionaries were Samoan, and because most of the missionaries that actually DID participate were Caucasian or otherwise European, he TOTALLY called out the big group of Samoans: "Hello? You crowd of Samoans in the middle would be loud if this were a football game, so why aren't you speaking?" SOOOOO DANG STRAIGHTFORWARD!!! He don't give a Carebear stare about what they thought of him! But I feel bad, because I feel that President Vidmar was really embarrassed about the overall lack of enthusiasm the general populous of the missionaries gave. While I feel like most of the missionaries "took the truth to be hard", Elder Theurer and I left with great restitution to change and do better. It was great. And plus Brother Allan told me one on one that I had a great smile. Yeeee!!!

Saw Sarah Cranston from Moe ward at the
Book of Mormon display, that was pretty awesome

Wednesday was basically one of the best days ever because our entire Zone got to go to Melbourne to see the massive Book of Mormon display that's like nine feet tall. It was great, and not only did we get to see the Book of Mormon display, but we got to go and man it for about six hours!! Elder Theurer and I gave out like nine copies of the Book of Mormon throughout the entire day, but since we were on our feet for that entire time we were really tired once we got home. It was so great, and we felt completely lit on fire for the rest of the next few days because of it. People would literally just come up to us and want to know more. Not all the time, but heck the fact that it would actually happen was outstanding. Especially talking to young adult aged people: they are SO willing to talk to us. No matter what, if we can find someone that's our age to talk to, more than likely if they don't give a snobby aura they're willing to learn. It's such a great thing!

Just a few of the great missionaries

Thursday and Friday were just kind of blah, lots of works was being done but at the same time it feels like nothing's really been accomplished. Days like that just happen you know, and that's how being a Zone Sensei is, just working but not really doing missionary work. Ya know, ya know... We did visit an investigator named Anthony though, but he's not really progressing. I’ll keep working with him. He's not totally in it for the sake of bashing, so it's not a totally lost cause.

Saturday was pretty fun because we got to go street contacting on the train. It's great, because we were on the train just going on the train between areas across the Zone and back talking to people. Again, from what I've seen and experienced about Young Single Adult aged people enjoying talking was confirmed on Saturday. We were on the train a couple of hours, and we gave a Book of Mormon to some guy from Tanzania, and even though he's WAY interested he's not in our area. But he was really intrigued to find out that the prophets’ name was Thomas, because that's his name too. We also gave two copies of the Book of Mormon to two girls who are about 15 years old. It's so weird, because the girls in this country look and act older than they area. You start talking to them and eventually ask "How old are you?" expecting them to be like 26 or something and they're like "Oh I'm 14". IT'S REALLY AWKWARD!! AND IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME, AND NOT JUST TO ME!!! Anyways, we're hoping to meet Carly and Hailey's parents sometime because they seem genuinely interested to learn about how to be happier. The rest of the day was mostly spent on the train back and forth talking to people, and MAN you meet so many crazy people the later in the night it gets. But it’s fun, those stories can wait for when I get home.

This is the first time I've had an Islander feed like this.
I'll probs gain weight in this area, but I've got two months
left so like I really care. There was so much dang food, and
we ate with all the wise old Tongan sages of the family
(if you eat with the old people, that's a serious honor)

Sunday was great because I got to actually meet members from our ward, because if you remember that last Sunday was Stake Conference, so I didn't really get the opportunity to actually meet members. But heck this ward is AWESOME!!! SO many youth, and all the adults are really cool with the missionaries and treat us like family almost instantly: it's the best. So I gave a short talk and since the pianist nor the backup pianist showed up I had to play today: welcome to the ward Elder Cook. I also had to play the piano in primary and help the 30 primary kids learn and memorize the lyrics to "Choose the Right". And then after church we had a MASSIVE lunch appointment with the Lelenoa family, and HOLY CRAP were there so many people there! Probably about 40 or so people, and the reason being is because they were Tongan and were having a family lunch with all the kids, adults, and the two legendary grandparents that started it all. It was dang fun, I'll send photos.

The incredible food and people at the Tongan feed

So that's basically how this week's gone for us. We're hoping to go berry picking with a family down in Rosebud, my first mission area in Australia, and so that'll be a ton of fun to go with them again. That is, if it ever decides to stop raining. Seriously these past two weeks have been so hot and sunny, and then BOOM suddenly P-Day happens and it's cold and the rain is relentless. What the heck. But anyways, life continues to prosper, and I love it all. Keep going hard in what you guys do and I'll do the same. Love you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

*instant Tongan voice* "Eldah, eet thuh pig, is good foh you"

P.S. This email was so long because now I have time to do it throughout the week! Elder Theurer has this machine that you type on and then connect it to the computer later, and it just types everything out on the computer at lightning speeds! So shutout to my companion.