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

Dear everyone out there,

This is gonna be a really dang short email because a lot has happened and yet it feels like nothing happened. And plus today we're having Zone P-Day with the Zone, and basically this Zone is full of some of the greatest missionaries in the mission. Seriously, like every Zone has at least two or three headache missionaries, but President Vidmar said that he's only sending the best missionaries out here because we're a District and not a Stake and he really wants Wangaratta to be a Stake. So I've probably got one of the best Zones in the mission to be honest. So as far as my companionship goes, Elder Wi Neera, Van Wagoner, and I are ZL's, and Faanunu, an Elder from the Tongan program who's been out for 7 months, is also our companion. So we're literally in a quad-panionship. It's really weird and none of us really know why President put us that way. Wi Neera goes home mid-transfer, so maybe that's why Faanunu's here, so that way we can have at least two functioning companionships right now instead of a trio. But all in his inspiration. So this Zone literally takes up about a quarter of the mission, so as the ZL's we do a TON of driving. It's not uncommon to plan a next days activities and find out "Oh what are we doing tomorrow? Well we're driving to Swan Hill for such-and-such, then to Wagga Wagga for such-and-such, and then we'll get back to the flatt at 9:00PM. Perfect." Lots of driving. But the missionaries in this Zone are so amazing! About a third of the Zone has only been out for three months or less, so a lot of young missionaries, and we've also got three missionaries going home in December, so we've got a few old missionaries as well. But everyone is awesome and has great personalities and ACTUALLY HAS THEIR HEADS SCREWED ON RIGHT!!!! IT'S A BEAUTIFUL THING!!!!!

So Elder Van Wagoner has like five bajillion amazing ideas for how he wants this Zone to be run, and I am REALLY glad that he gets to train me as a ZL because he HATES boring Zone Meetings and so do I. Of all the Worsencroft children he's the most serious but he's still a really funny guy. Just more mature than me and Holt. He's basically had this revelation to have a family history booth out in public on certain days, and he's already gotten permission from President Vidmar, the Area Presidency, and for a few things he's required and obtained permission from the First Presidency. If this thing works out as well as we want it to, then he'll probably change the way that we do missionary work in the mission, if not throughout Australia. It's really exciting, and he's just the man.

This week is no exception to the way of driving. We've probably spent a total of 30 hours in the car driving in between areas this week because so many of the areas are literally HOURS away. And plus this week has just been working a ton to make sure that this next Zone Meeting is as inspirational as it can get, because a boring Zone Meeting isn't a meeting worth having. And also, this Zone P-Day we're in the middle of is the first Zone P-Day this Zone has ever had: with President Maxwell he wasn't too keen on the idea of missionaries spending 3 hours to drive just for a P-Day, but with President Vidmar he's just like "Elders, get this Zone more unified. Let's fire up a Zone P-Day!" And plus we've got Zone Meeting tomorrow, so it'll be good.

My companions are amazing, and holy moly it's hot up here! And this one'll be a scorcher at around 98F on average, but we'll survive! Luckily we've got a house, like a legitimate house, and we've got a few AC units throughout it. We're like three hours away from the mission office which makes going to Zone Leader meetings a bit of a drag, but all goods! Basically this Zone is awesome, and I love being here! So that's it from this week, but I loves loves LOVES you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (Elder Christenson's 

mom send that stuff to him to wear. 

He wouldn't put it on so I did instead)

 At the mission office swapping companions

 At the mission office swapping companions W/Elder Holt

 At the mission office swapping companions

Because Elder Wheeler was my last ZL

Bush rangers for life

Elder Wade and I 

Getting the HECK OUTTA SEYMOUR
Cleaning the flat

Getting the HECK OUTTA SEYMOUR

Incognito..Leaving Seymour

getting the heck outta SEYMOUR

Last night us four with Elder Knight and Erickson

 ate at a Fijian members place, it was pretty awesome

Six man sleepover with Elder Meziere, 

Faanunu, Wi Neera, Christenson, 

Van Wagoner and me

What Faanunu does during our Zone Leader stuff

The four of us are currently working on a Zone song. 

No other Zone I've been in does stuff like this and I 

love it! And no he's not in his garments that's an 

actual shirt he's wearing

That Aussie street tho

The Bros (Elder Giesbrecht, Howell, and Poulson)

Zone Leader Stuff