Elder Calachan

Elder Stokes

Hey everybody, it's been a really wild week here in Launceston! Last Monday we dropped Elder Chen at the airport because he goes back to China. Sad day, but he was a great missionary. For a few days we were in a trio again because Elder Calachan was without a companion, so he stayed with us. Since we were in a trio it was safer to go finding out in the city during the night, so that's what we did. We found a Korean guy named Thomas who's an exchange student right now and goes back in two months. He's Christian, but his knowledge on Jesus Christ is very limited, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and he's really excited to learn about what we have to teach. He said he has some friends who said they'd be really interested in learning too, so we have our fingers crossed! 

Wednesday was the day we went to pick up Elder Calachan's new companion from the airport, and that new companion is Elder Jensen! The same one from my MTC intake! SO excited that Elder Calachan and Jensen are going to be serving in the same district as me.





Helpin' Todd Roberts dig a hole in his back

yard for an underground trampoline he's working

on (The guy has his own personal excavator)

Thursday we did heaps of service for a member in the area named Todd Roberts. He is one of the best and coolest members in the ward, and in the entire mission I've heard, and yeah, over these few weeks I've definitely come to realize that he's one of the coolest.



Elder Stokes and I taking pictures at a really cool lookin' river

Great view of the Footy Game

More Todd, and us at the footy game on Monday

So Monday (the reason I couldn't email) is because Tim Eccles (another of the best members in the entire mission) took us to a footy game! Footy being some kind of mixture between rugby and American Football (which they call grid iron over here). IT WAS AWESOME! But we are still missionaries, and so I made sure to talk to a few people as we watched. One of the guys I talked to was Matt, and he's 19 years old and awesome. We talked basically the entire three hour game like we've known each other forever, and I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out we knew each other in the pre-existence. We talked and talked for a long time, and he knew I was a missionary for our church, but he didn't seem to care because our conversation was pretty casual. That's how you gotta be with the people here: if you're too formal, they want nothing to do with you, especially in Tasmania. Even though we weren't able to exchange contact information of any kind, hopefully we can somehow meet him again in the future, or because of me being so kind to him he might be open to listen to other missionaries in the future.

Elder Stokes, Elder Jensen and me

Arden Eccles and I sporting our Hawthorn Hawks

scarves (EVERYONE on Launceston is a Hawks fan,

whoop whoop!)

So that was my week everybody, pretty big and exciting and LOTS accomplished. I love you all tons, and I hope that you are all doing what you can to take it easy and stay close to our loving Heavenly Father. Again, love you all and as always, God be with you till we meet again

Hawthorn Hawks SMASHED the Brisbane Lions (Look at dat score!)

-Elder Landon Cook

Botched hair cut and my huge burger

It hasn't been a very exciting week, let me just start out by saying that. I've been sick almost all week, so that killed us when it came to work. P-Day we didn't really do too much because I was sick, so that kinda stank. Well, I did get a haircut, but the dude cut it wrong and buzzed my head, and I haven't had a shaved head since I was about 7 years old.  One of the first things I realized when my head was almost bare was how cold my head was whenever I would walk outside. Oh well, at least I don't need another haircut until Christmas! And plus, with no hair comes saving money on shampoo and hair gel, so financially I guess it's better. Some of the members like it, but I think it looks pretty dang goofy on me.


We also went shopping for something called footie pants, which are basically really tiny pants that are apparently really fashionable for guys here which is strange, but hey, when in Rome do as the Romans do. So I got a pair of Footie pants with a Hawks logo on it, because the Hawks are number 2 in the sport right now and my high school mascot was the Hawks. Whoop whoop! After we got the pants we went to McDonalds, and here they have something called "Build Your Own Burger", which is something relatively new here, but I've never seen it in America before, so you know what I did? I WENT ALL OUT!!! It's been my wish ever since I've seen it to eat one, but not just eat one, but to cram as much stuff on it as I can to make it as expensive as possible! That puppy ended up being like $19.00, but it was totally
worth it. Do it for the experiences!

We also went to Deloraine to hang out with Chen and Calachan because Chen actually goes home today, and we bought these creepy $2.00 childrens masks just to mess with each other.

A member in Deloraine took us to this place called Melita Honey Farm, and it was really cool because they had tons of different flavors of honey and honey flavored ice cream which was really good. After hanging out in Deloraine we went to a members house for dinner that night and Brother/Todd Roberts said I looked like a Nazi. Thanks Todd, you're the man.

At the honey place taste testing about 

50 different honey flavors

Every Saturday morning we go running with Tim Eccles, his wife Halene, and his three younger kids. We run a 5k every Saturday morning, and it's always fun because they are the best members ever! That day I finished in 78th place out of about 400 people or so, and I ran it in 27:39 without stopping. I felt pretty dang good after that actually.

We haven't been able to do much door knocking or finding people or anything of that nature because I've been sick, so it's been pretty slow. But hey, it happens sometimes. A lot of the members here have been sick as well, and Saturday night I got a call from the 2nd councilor of the bishopric asking if I could give a talk on Sunday because the youth speaker fell sick, so I had to fill in for him. Sunday I had to use my personal study time and the full lunch hour to write that talk (it's hard to write a talk without any computers, and all you have is the scriptures and a piece of paper to write on). But the talk went pretty good.

Anyways that was my week, hopefully your week has been a good one too. I love all y'all, have a great rest of the week and a great Sabbath day, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.
-Elder Landon Cook

Elder Stokes making a cheesecake for Elder Chen on his second to last P-Day

Todd Roberts giving his dog Honey the stink eye

Oompa-Loompa doopedy doo. It's been a great week, let me tell you.

At the top of Mt. Wellington :)

So last week we had a Zone P-Day and we went to some Cadbury chocolate factory. It was kinda lame really, but Elder Stokes and I went up to the top of Mt. Wellington before that which was really cool. The next day we had Zone conference in Hobart, and before that we went to Mt. Wellington again because why not, so we went to the top of Mount Wellington Monday Morning and Tuesday morning, both times were pretty fun, but the second time was the best because we went up with Elder Brouwer and Seru and had a snowball fight. 

Elder Brouwer... snowball fight

 Wednesday David Archuletta and Brad Wilcox came to Australia for a missionary devotional, but because we're in Tasmania we had to watch it via internet broadcast. It was lame not being able to be there in person, but David Archuletta made a shoutout to us in Tassie, whoop-whoop! They both did an amazing job at their devotionals and really brought the spirit.

Friday we spent all day with Todd (an awesome member) helping him with decorating his severely mentally handicapped son's wheelchair. We turned it into the Batmobile using cardboard, tape, and lots of spray paint. We weren't able to see the final product because we had to go to a dinner appointment, but on Sunday at church Todd came up to us and gave us a box of chocolates saying that Ben won "Best Costume" in the fundraiser he applied in.

Saturday was a day full of hard work. We went on a 5k run with Tim Eccles and his family, and his oldest son, Jai (who's 9) ran that sucker in just under 23 minutes! Elder Stokes and I ran it in 27:56, but I sprinted the last 100 meters so I beat Stokes by three seconds, wahahahaha! My legs were POUNDING sore when I finished because we didn't stop running the entire way, and I haven't run like that literally in years.

Elder Stokes, Jason Worsley and me

But here's the thing that puts the week all together: Jason Worsley got baptized on Saturday! After our 5k run we went home asap to shower and change into our clothes. When we got to the church Jason was already there in his baptismal clothing, and after the opening devotional in the chapel everyone went to the baptismal room for the main event. Everyone huddled around the glass in front of the font, especially the children, in anticipation and excitement of this important milestone moment in Jason's life. Tim Eccles and Luke Radosavljevic (our ward mission leader [don't even attempt to pronounce his last name, it's just too painful...]) were the witnesses, and I watched with enthusiasm as Jason and Elder Stokes made their way down the steps and into the water. Elder Stokes baptized him, but because the water levels were so low he wasn't completely submerged, and had to repeat the baptism twice more before it was confirmed. It was such a spiritually powerful moment, and while these two changed back into their normal clothes everyone else mingled in the hallway and eventually made their way back to the chapel room. We had our closing statements and went to the gym where Sister Pawson had masterfully prepared all the refreshments everyone had brought . There were sandwiches, cookies, cakes, brownies, and drinks, and the perfect amount for everyone to be satisfied. Jason was mingling with the members perfectly: he's the man, and he'll make a great member.

After the baptism we changed into out normal street clothes to go do some service for a less active member. Long story short we basically chopped wood for about 4 hours, and there was HEAPS of wood, but luckily a few other members came after the baptism as well to help out. Some of the logs were basically wheels of wood, about two feet thick and four feet in diameter. Luckily Todd brought was there with his hydraulically powered wood splitter which was a complete life saver. But the splitter could only go so far, so while two other people would use that Todd and I would take a sledgehammer each, and using a steel wedge would split the bigger wood into smaller pieces. He'd hit it, then I'd hit it, then he'd hit it, then I'd hit it. It was like what you see on those movies when guys are working on the railroad and are alternating hits between eachother, We did the railroad style splitting for about an hour, and man was I hurting: my back, abs, shoulders, chest, arms, everything was sore! My hands had a few blisters, but hey, it's all good.

Top of Mt. Wellington with Elder Stokes

Elder Stokes finally is recovered from his illness, but I got sick Saturday night with the same thing he's got. My thoughts is that I worked the living heck out of myself and weakened myself enough to become susceptible to the bug he's got, because I've been around him for two weeks while he's been sick, but only on Saturday night did I actually get sick. Ugh, oh well, nothing I can really do about it.

Well everyone, it's been an exciting week, and the work is continually progressing! I love you all, stay strong in everything you do, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.
-Elder Landon Cook 



Finding it a bit chilly here in Tasmania!

 

It was so cold... there were ice formations on the rocks..known as me

It's been ages since Elder Rock has seen snow like this before!

The snow piled high along side the road

 

Elder stokes and I
 

Elder Stokes and I

LOVE this Beach!

So Beautiful!



posing in front of a flood light in a night time construction area

This is Elder Stokes posing in front of the flood light
 

 

 

Hello everybody, greetings from the world and land down under! I'm doing great here in Tasmania, but last week I forgot to mention one thing:  Our flatt has really comfortable mattresses with thick memory foam pads, but at the expense that there are mushrooms growing behind our kitchen sink (I always joke around that we can grown a tiny garden behind our kitchen, starting with tiny mushrooms, then tiny cucumbers, then tiny tomatoes).

Anyways, my week has been really great! Well, actually, Elder Stokes has been sick for the entire week and it doesn't seem to be getting much better, so our work productivity has been low... Last Monday we went to this place called The Gorge, and it was really pretty and we took tons of pictures. While we were shopping that day as well we ran into a member and she gave us $100.00 for groceries! What a blessing Sister Mitchel is, I mean what a true blessing!



Birthday dinner with the Eccle's family

Wednesday was Elder Stokes birthday, so we went to the Eccle's house for a birthday dinner celebration.  We had a really great time, and for a birthday gift Brother Eccle got Elder Stokes a pair of jeggings. Why Tim why? But we still had a really great time. The three kids love me, basically because they took turns while I swung them by their ankles and threw them onto the couch (Tim was loving it). When we got home Elder Stokes opened the package he got from his parents, and there were two tiny Nerf guns in there, one for him and one for me, so we had a little bit of fun shooting each other from across the room with those powerful little suckers.
One of our recent converts went into the hospital because he hasn't been taking his medications and went a little crazy, and now he's in the "Hard to control psychiatric ward", so PLEASE... keep him in your prayers! 



Scott Prebble (Frankston)

Friday night we went to a members house named Scott Prebble and his family. When he first introduced me to himself he called himself Brother Frankston, and even though I know that his last name is Prebble, and he knows I know, I still call him Brother Frankston just because him and his family get a kick out of it. The ward here is great, we get fed on average about 4-5 times a week for dinner, so that's really cool, and I always push myself further and further out of my comfort zone so I can get to know the ward more and more, and I can tell that the ward is starting to like me, even though I've only been here for about two weeks. Tim Eccles (In his 30's or so), Paul Challis (He's like 60), Job Tai (About 45), Todd Roberts (40's) and Cory Bailey and his 18 year old son Aaron are my favorite members, I love all of dem.


On exchanges with Elder Calachan (he's friggen SWEET!)

Saturday we went on exchanges, and since Elder Stokes is the District Leader going on exchanges is going to be a normal thing. This week I was with Elder Calachan. He's from the Philippians and has been out for about 7 months now. Most humble missionary I think I've ever met, before and during my mission. His English is incredibly well, and he hopes that he will continue to improve it so he can apply to BYU Idaho when he gets back from his mission. Such a meek and humble guy, love him to bits.



Elder Calachan and I eating an awesome meal!

Oh! And how could I forget??? We have an investigator named Jason who is getting baptized this Saturday! It'll be my first baptismal service my mission, and Jason is really excited for it. During church yesterday he came and completely participated in singing and the lessons, and afterwards we showed him the baptismal clothing and you could just see his eyes light up. He's ready, and I'm excited for him.

Well I think that's been the extent of my week. We're going to Mt. Wellington today and then as a Zone we're going to the Cadbury chocolate factory, then we're going ice skating. WAY excited for today.

That's it everybody, I love you all, and I pray for your safety constantly, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook



Wow everybody, has it been another week already? Yes boy oh boy it sure has! Anyways, I'm serving now here in Tasmania which is cool, I've heard tons of awesome things about this place, so I'm excited to start serving here. Leaving Elder Worsencroft was tough on Tuesday, but I knew that it's all just part of the adventure of serving a mission. The flight to Tazzy was only like an hour, but I got to meet my new companion, Elder Stokes. He's also the District Leader here as of this transfer, so that's cool.

On Friday we has something called the "Bush Dance", Bush basically being the Australian equivalent to redneck or "Hilly-billy", but that was heaps fun. Lots of pie there, and I got to meet a lot of the ward members which was tons of fun, and the members are really wicked cool and chill. In fact, the people here are all really laid back. The members are cool, and a few of the more popular among missionaries are Todd, Tim Eckles, Scott Prebbles, Jono, and Job Tai. There's a recent convert couple in the ward, David and Estelle, both in about their 50's who are a hoot. David will call us probably half a dozen times a day to see if we are busy and want to come over. He's a little "off", but all goods, nobody here in Tasmania seems to be 100% there hahahaha but it's all goods, keeps things interesting.

We also met with an investigator with a baptismal date for August 15, and he's really solid on it too, so that really has my hopes going for him!

Elder Stokes has been really sick with a cold for the past few days, so we have been spending a lot of time in the flat just letting him rest so he can recover.  SOOOOO boring, I'd much rather be out working instead of sleeping. Oh well, I guess what has to be done, has to be done, but I tell you what, I've never done so much Book of Mormon/Bible study in one day that I have in the past few hahaha.

We also got snow here in Launceston! Apparently this is the first time since the 80's that it's snowed here, and we got to witness it! We had a member, Job Tai, come over to our house because Elder Stokes asked him if he could help in giving a priesthood blessing, and when we walked outside to his car it was snowing! Job was WAY excited to see it snow there. He's seen snow before, but not in Launceston, so he was really happy to see it snow.

Anyways, that's the week for us, not too much has happened. I can't send pictures because the computers here don't have an SD Card reader, so when we go shopping today I'll have to buy an SD-Card converter for next week.

So on Thursday while we were walking around in the city we had some guy who was playing a public piano in the street (Just a random piano open to anyone who wants to use it), and he started yelling at us about how God doesn't save Mormons, how "Our American God" died for normal *$#@*#  people, not his "bloody representatives" (and bloody is a REALLY bad word down here), and other ridiculously profane things to us and it almost looked like he wanted to his us! A part of me was wishing that he did so we could smack him around back, but I just held my peace and did what I could to ignore him. It's hard being a missionary sometimes...

And I believe that concludes this week. I love you all, wish you a merry Christmas (It's really cold down here, okay?), and as always, God be with you till we meet again
-Elder Landon Cook