So this week has been a pretty eventful one, but at the same time it's felt slow, but similarly it seems crazy to think it's P-Day already. We didn't really do much for P-Day last week, just hung out and played cards with some other Elders in the next area over. We also went to this Asian shop that somehow sold A&W soda. It wasn't root beer which I realized only after buying it, but instead it was Sarsaparilla. Still American. Still awesome. God bless the USA. I also gave myself a haircut, but again I shaved a bit much off. Not as much as last time, but still a bit more than I would appreciate if'n ya know what I mean.

Cheerio good chap, it's been a week of diligent work. Tally-ho!
Enjoying our Root Beer aka Sarsaparilla

Tuesday we had our District Meeting, and afterwords Elder Ching and I were able to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and Elder Rands and I stayed in Eltham. It was pretty cool that we were able to do that and gain a bit of experience in that aspect, but Elder Rands agrees that we're in a pretty hard-hearted area when it comes to sharing the gospel. He serves in an area with a lot of Vietnamese people, and them alongside other people of Asian descent are always open to hear about other viewpoints on God. So yeah, Aussies in rich areas are a bit tougher to get interested (or even have a mild conversation with), and even though it's discouraging at times we are still working our stinkin' tails off here, knowing that somehow we are going to find that ONE person in the entire area who is willing and ready to learn and accept the gospel.

Wednesday was a pretty normal day, and we were able to teach old man Ian again. He's a former investigator that Elder Ching and I re-established contact with, and he's making slow but definitely steady headway in his progression. He understand the story of the Book of Mormon and seems to understand WHY he needs to read it to get his own testimony, but it might take some time, just bear with me. Thursday was just a normal day of Weekly Planning, and most of that day was spent reorganizing the Area Book because that needed to happen.

Saturday we had exchanges again, but this time with the District Leader, and I was with Elder Concardes, the District Leader, and again we were in Eltham. We again were in Eltham, and since that was his area a year ago he was getting all nostalgic over the dinky little flatt (I say dinky because it's like 50 degrees every morning, and there's not really any internal heating in the flatt, and the heater that we do have only heats up the air around it of a radius of about 3 feet or so. Really cold mornings).

So as far as the actual progress of missionary work... it's still pretty stagnant. Not too many people are being found, but yesterday we had a huge miracle! Elder Ching and I were fasting yesterday so we could get some special help from Heavenly Father, and after church we went to go teach the Tong family, and only the mother is a member, both are from China. So our objective was to teach the mother and the father, but because their two toddler children were throwing major tantrums Sister Tong took the kids away, so it was just us and William Tong. Elder Ching and his previous companion had taught them once before, but he told me that William wasn't at all interested. This time was different though, because he sat and talked with us about how recently he has been looking into different religions, so we taught for about 45 minutes about prayer and what it's role is, and he said that he'd be willing to meet with us on a weekly basis to learn more about the church. He, like most people here in Australia, works crazy shift hours and works a lot of hours, so we'll see what we can do.

A missionary lunch staple

So that's about it over here in the city. The work is tough, but every area has it's secret to success, and we are just having a rotten time of finding out what it is. It seems like everyone who is keen to have a conversation with you (which isn't common) shuts you out, ENTIRELY, fsd fa once religion is at all mentioned. But we still keep working at it anyways! Love you all, have a great rest of your week, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Alma 38:5

                                                  

Me and Ching with our Boi TyroneDont mind my chubby cheeks I have
gained a few.  Planning on getting it off
after my mission

 I was swinging my pen around and it exploded all over me

Mormon as defined by the dictionary (no wonder everyone thinks we're polygamists!)