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

All the Missionaries shoes at the Mission Leader Council

During the Missionary Mini Olympics

With our mini Olympic headbands on

Our mini Olympic team

Me photo bombing the other teams photo

More Olympic games

Don't ask me... At the Christmas Party 

Selfies at the Christmas Party

Christmas Party

At the beach with Elder Van Wagoner down near the mission home

President Vidmar & his wife gave us all these awesome 
Australia Melbourne Mission pins for Christmas

because the pin on the strap came loose,
my watch hit the concrete and boom, done.  
Kept it pristine for the past three years. It still works though

Hey everyone! Well another week has come and gone, again, and it's December once more. My last December and Christmas season in Australia. Good. I hate hot Christmas's. Christmas is meant to have snow and cold and hot chocolate and winter coats. Not swimsuits and sweat and board shorts. So DUMB!!! But yeah, it's pretty dang hot here, and the humidity doesn't really help. The weather gets hot but luckily not as hot as it did last year when I was in Moe with Elder Vaiouga. Wow holy crap was that a year ago!?

So this week we've been doing quite a bit, and yet this was our most "normal" week we've had. We probably won't have another stable week for the rest of the transfer, because this upcoming week we've got MLC which is a big Zone Leader meeting that happens at the mission home every month, the Christmas party for the mission, and the branch Christmas dinner. Then next week Elder Wi Neera goes home, and then from then on out it's tons of exchanges because we haven't had time to do any this entire transfer which kinda sucked.

Piano at the GV Hospital.

But as for this week, we had Sister Lauder help us do our family history so that way we can actually HELP other people when we offer it, we did a TON of piano practice because Elder Van Wagoner and I volunteered to play at a hospital for their 140th anniversary, and we had to learn completely new songs because they wanted us to play old songs. I played the Entertainer by Scott Joplin, and luckily I learned that song when I was like 12 so there was only eight or nine years of rust on it to brush up on: no worries. Being a Zone Leader is still heaps of fun as always, and it keeps me on my toes and really busy. The piano thing at the hospital went really well, and the people there want to invite us to some breakfast thing where they honor and recognize all the volunteers that help, so if we went representing the church that'd be really good. President Vidmar is encouraging us to get out and get involved in the community in things like this so that way people are like "Oh, Mormons are good people!"

Elder Van Wagoner

We did some service for President Mauigoas neighbor, and that was basically just tearing up concrete and grinding fiberglass of their pool to get rid of it and eventually cave it in. Saturday we went on a temple trip with the youth to do baptisms for the dead, and we went with a priest named Rawiri Waara who was baptized just this past April. He's the MAN! He's so dang solid, and even though his knowledge in the gospel is limited he;s just like "Yeah I've got questions, but I know there are answers". Like, barely anyone ever thinks that, they just want answers NOW, and when they don't get them when they want them they get their pants in a wad. He wants to serve a mission and also wants to come with us on a mini mission, which I am SURE we could get permission from President Vidmar to do that with him which would be awesome.

I'm the one in the funny hat and glasses

That's basically our week, but I want to reemphasize that I absolutely love the scriptures. Every morning I do three things: I write in my journal, I exercise, and then I study the scriptures. I start every day with a mental exercise, a physical exercise, and a spiritual exercise. There is practically nothing better to start the day. I love how when I read the Book of Mormon I feel just so enlightened. Of course, there are still some days where I read and draw a spiritual dud, like sometimes when I go to the gym and it's just an "off" day when it's a hard day to get physically in the mode. But it happens in all aspects of life, and scripture study is no exception. But it's such an amazing book, and it makes me so sad that there are people who just kinda brush it off because it's got "religion" stamped all over it. The topic of religion is scary to people because people are so on edge here about "offending", but the reality of it is that it's as offensive as talking about politics, sports teams, and other things. This gospel is too legit! I feel like doing missionary work is SO much easier as a member, and the book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" is a book I recommend to EVERY member within the sound of my voice (or emails).

Trying to use my weight to bend some rebar

And also, if you haven't checked out the Christmas Initiative on the Mormon.org site, I would highly recommend it because we are trying to get the members in Shepparton fired up about it. But it's not working. Oh well, life goes on! Love you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

Service project with President Mauigoa and some other members

-Elder Landon Cook

Faanunu lookin like one of those
sandmen from Star Wars

Just because we were tracting & need some fun

Hey everyone. So this week will again be another quick one because there's lots to talk about and no time. Again. Holy crap seriously as a Zone Leader it's just go go go go go and there's no time to rest: even our P-Days are full on as it gets with stuff that needs to be done.

So we'll start from the beginning where I left off last week: Zone P-Day. That was a FANTASTIC

Zone P-Day photos volleyball

Zone P-Day, probably one of the best I've had on my missions. It was great because usually we go back to proselyting at 6:00PM, but we got permission to do a Family Zone Evening from 6:00PM to 9:00PM because we had Zone Meeting the next day and everyones areas are AGES AWAY, and we got to have a Thanksgiving-ish dinner at Sister Naylors place, a senior missionary in the Zone!!! During the day we played volleyball, foosball, ping pong, and a game that's like Werewolf and Mafia, but we put a Book of Mormon twist to it and called it Gaddianton Robbers which everyone loved. The next day we had our Zone Meeting, and usually they only go on for a few hours but because there was so much that needed to be covered it went on for like six hours. All goods though because it was great and spiritual. Elder Van Wagoner is a really smart guy when it comes to getting things done in a way that actually WORKS, so I'm learning lots from him.

one of the lights hanging off of the ceiling because 
Elder Porter hit it with a volleyball, no one was hurt 
and we fixed it but needless to say we were done for the day

We're also teaching a guy named Neil. He's an excommunicated member who's married to someone who was baptized a year ago or so. He's probably one of the most prepared people who's ready for baptism. He's been coming to church regularly for a while now and is totally humbled and wanting to come back... the only problem is that he's struggling with drug problems, but he's getting over it. It won't technically "count" as a convert baptism, but I don't care, I want to help him get into the fold of God all the same. We've gone on a few exchanges with a few Elders in the Zone, but man, every time I meet with the missionaries I think "everyone in this Zone is on top of it". Literally, ALL Zones and Districts usually have that one "headache" missionary EXCEPT this one. I love it!!! And so does Elder Van Wangoner and Wi Neera. We are also teaching a part member family couple and they come to church pretty regularly, and they only need to get married. They went ring shopping on Thursday which is apparently a HUGE step for them, so they'll get married pretty soon hopefully. As soon as the husband can afford it.

Since there aren't any missionaries in the Finley area about an hour north, we now cover them as well. It's cool because the branch up there of about 100 active members is AWESOME!!! And plus, the whole of them are VERY on top of it with missionary work. There's a girl in her mid 20's or so that is keen to be baptized, but because they last missionaries were kinda "strange" around her, if you

Our Zone

know what I mean, she really had no other option than to back off. We spend the weekend in Finley and met her, and she's REALLY excited that there are new missionaries. The last ones creeped her out. But she knows like everyone in the branch and they know her, so I can assume she's be baptized in a couple of weeks. I just hope she doesn't drop out like the OTHER investigators I've had that I've said that about in the past. Most of the rest of this week has been just me dealing with schooling stuff which has been a real headache and stress causer since the deadline is in like three days. The stress will all be gone come December 1st which is the deadline.

Again, so much to talk about yet so little time. I'll just have to send tons of photos, but hey that'll do. Love you all, congrats to my older sister Danielle for getting married this weekend, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

  Elder Wi Neera was sick on our way back from Finley, 

so he just slept while I took photos and made funny faces.

-Elder Landon Cook

             Sad Elder Wi Neera goes home in two weeks, 

 & a few days ago we got his death letter flight information

Elder Wi Neera at our Zone meeting

Zone meeting

Handing out the Golden Awards to the missionaries 

that just finished their 12 week programs and 

are officially out of the greenie atmosphere.

Greenie Awards

Good times

having fun and acting like nuts

Greenie Awards

 

Greenie Awards

Greenie (new Elder)

Being goofy congratulating a new greenie

Brand New Elders

All the new Elders that got awards

More cows (We were with Elder Ericson on exchanges, 

and he's been out for like barely two weeks)

But the Shrek one was my favorite

My first time riding a Pretty pink cow

One pretty cool cow!

Found this massive strawberry thing on the way to Finley, 
and so we had to stop and take a photo with it

Our Zone

Family Zone meeting

Planning like champions.

The visor in the car didn't cover right where

the sun was shining in my eyes, 

so I had to improvise a bit

p-day Foosball 

Pday ping pong

Pday photos

Zone P-Day

 Zone P-Day-ness with other missionaries. 

It's fun to take pictures of people in action 

of conversation or whatever..

Zone Pday

Zone P-day