The atonement is a real thing, and I can feel it working in my life constantly while here and I know that, if I keep prayer and study up and sharing the gospel, then I will feel the same when I get home.

Hey howdy hey y'all I finally hit that 700 day mark, which means that I've sad to say I've only got about 40 or so days to go before this blessed experience is gone and gone. But I got my new companion Elder Carroll and he's from Sydney here in Aussie land. He's a pretty cool guy but because he's Samoan there's obviously a lot of different cultural differences that makes it a bit tougher to get along. Not saying that we argue, but there is DEFINITELY a lot less things that I can relate to than with my past two companions Elder Theurer and Elder Van Wagoner. But with the atonement we can get along, it's just about recognizing the huge cultural differences and getting with it.

Elder Theurer, me and my new companion, Elder Carroll

But this week was pretty good. Elder Theurer stayed with us until Friday instead of just leaving on Tuesday because he was just going to fly down Wednesday morning to Tasmania and then fly back up Thursday night for the Zone Leader meeting and then just fly back down Friday night. No need for the waste, so they just decided to keep him here with us in our companionship in a trio. It was good to have him there for those extra couple of days to help me with the blow of having a totally new companion with a lot of differences, and I'm grateful for that. Now I've gotta help him get used to being a new Zone Leader and taking charge of the area, and at least we KNOW that he'll be doing that because we know where my next area is…… Vegas.

we got these lays made of candy, but I wont eat it 

because it's hard candy and apparently it takes like 

two weeks to make a single one, so I'll just wear it 

home triumphantly instead

So something interesting that happened this week was that we went over about an hour and a half away to see one of Elder Carroll's friends come back from his mission from the Philippines. It was a HUGE Samoan party with a TON of loud, hard-beat music, and to be pretty honest.. I really DID NOT like it. It was probably one of the lowest spiritual settings I've ever been in as a missionary, and to be honest I just wasn't really happy at all while I was there. It would've been fun had I not been on a mission, but I just couldn't really enjoy it much. And to be honest, I don't think Elder Carroll's friend did either, even though he was Samoan as well. But it made me realize how much I really DON'T want to waste the last six weeks I have left, and I plan entirely on going full out as hard as I can for this last transfer. Elder Carroll and I had a really long, heartfelt talk about what needs to be done this transfer, so I can really feel that he and I are going to be great friends by the time this transfer ends.

Huge Samoan party... Look at all that food and decor!

Well I love you all, and sorry for the email not being very long. Busy day today, I've only got a couple of P-Days left so each and every one will probably be filled with a LOT of things to do before I fly home. But I'm so grateful to have been able to have had this chance to be on my mission. I love it a lot, and I'm really glad for how it has changed me. I want to serve as hard as I can while still here on the mission, but I'm also really excited to get home and get life rolling again. The atonement is a real thing, and I can feel it working in my life constantly while here and I know that, if I keep prayer and study up and sharing the gospel, then I will feel the same when I get home. Love you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Uh, we tried to take a good photo, 

but it didn't really turn out the way we wanted it to

 

We admittedly got a bit bored while Weekly Planning

Members always drop food off to us. It's great, we are so blessed

This is Elder Mahendran, I love him to death

I love this Gospel and all that it has to offer, and I'm excited for this transfer. And as always, God be with you till we meet again.

Family, friends, and acquaintances all around. How much I have loved this transfer and everything that has come and gone with it. So we got the transfer news last night, and that was pretty crazy. But let me start from the beginning from how the week's been...

So Strike last week was pretty dang fun. 

It will be great to play pool at my home in a few weeks

Monday for P-Day we went to Strike which was tons of fun, and we did a lot of bowling and laser tag down there. THAT was a ton of fun to do with the District, and we were all just kinda running around and sweating and doing our thing. It was just a ton of fun. Tuesday and Wednesday was basically just running around and teaching a ton of people.

Yep 137... that's my score :)

Thursday was pretty funny because we went to Sister McFadden's place because she has a couple of people she wanted to give a copy of the Book of Mormon to and she needed us to drop them off at her place. Her and her family of four kids (at home) are from America, and they're awesome. When we got to her place she explained to us the people who she plans of giving the copies of the Book of Mormon to, and then randomly she starts giving us all this dating advice! It was so funny, like she was giving us all these tips and stuff for dating, telling us about all the returned missionaries she "helped get married off to". I'll probably stay in contact with her for after the mission hits me hahaha. And mom, you'd love her.

Friday we had exchanges with the missionaries down in Mornington, and I went with Elder Gill and Elder Middis. That was pretty fun, especially since we met some crazy people, that's just always a blessing.

So Saturday comes along, and man that was such a stressful day. We were expecting the transfer news to come along at about 1:00PM or so, and usually it does for the Zone Leaders and we're then able to give it out to the rest of the Zone. We had a few companionship that were completely stressing out over the transfer news, and as the time ticked on we were pretty stressed out too: I already knew I was staying and Elder Theurer already knew he was leaving, but WE WERE STRESSING OUT ABOUT WHO OUR NEW COMPANIONS WERE!!! It was really stressful, and all throughout the day we tried our absolute best to work without letting our minds wander to what we didn't know, but it didn't work very well. We were expecting it to come all throughout the day, and up until bed we were just anticipating that call. But then it never came on Saturday.

It came Sunday night though, and apparently NONE of the Zone Leaders throughout the mission knew anything about transfers earlier than anyone else, so we're not really sure as to why President Vidmar was really hush-hush about it until the last second. But yes, we got our transfer news. Our Zone is staying together for the most part, but we're getting a couple of new missionaries in the Zone, so we've got about 14 missionaries in the Zone again instead of 11 or 12. Good things.

The incredible "retired Elder" Poulson came back for a visit

So as far as Elder Theurer, he's going down to the isle of Patmos (Tasmania) and his companion is going to be Elder Banner. And for me? Well, I'm obviously staying, and my new companion is a missionary named Elder Carrol, and I'll be training him as a new Zone Leader. That'll be interesting, and I'm actually pretty nervous about it. But hey, things are going to be okay: this is my last transfer, and now's the time to buckle down and get things done. I can really feel that we're going to do great missionary work together, Carrol and I. I love this Gospel and all that it has to offer, and I'm excited for this transfer. And as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Helaman 3:29-30

Braeside Zone

PS: Our car got robbed on Sunday morning, and now my personal GPS and my credit card (which is the Church’s gas card) to pay for gas is gone, But we called the office and got that all taken care of.  Love ya!

what was great was that we saw the former 

Elder Poulson there that is now Garrick!!! 

Man I love that guy!

So we had a lot of fun at a place called Cape Shank
this morning as tradition of the Braeside Zone

Beautiful view

Elder Parone goes home in a few days,
so last week at District Meeting we celebrated his funeral.

just a joke.. lol

Elder Theurer got a haircut

a brand new Elder 

playing pool with the sister missionaries

First of all sorry for not getting to you yesterday: it was Labor Day around these parts and all the libraries were closed. But we had our District P-Day yesterday which was a ton of fun, but I'll have to tell you about that next week. This week's been a bit interesting because as much work as we've done, there's not really much to talk about during the majority of the week. Seriously, just kinda going around doing this and that. But Wednesday was interviews with President Vidmar, and I just love him to death because he's just so encouraging. He basically told me that chances are I'll be staying in Patterson Lakes, and that makes me happy because holy ridiculousness I do not want to move right when I feel like I'm staying. I'd rip my eyes out if that happened. I want my next area to be Las Vegas, Nevada, and nothing else in between if at all possible. But it seems like that won't be a problem, and chances are that I'll be with a new companion next transfer too since Elder Theurer's been in this Stake for over a year, and that's just too long. I'll be honest I'll miss him a lot: he's a highly skilled missionary and I've realized just how much I've really learned from him this transfer.

Saturday was pretty cool because we did a lot of street contacting and a bit of tracting. Personally I still find tracting more effective than street contacting, but Elder Theurer's trainer Elder Steele was BIG into street contacting, so now he'd much rather do that. Oh well, I still don't mind it much. But we went tracting on Saturday and met a guy named Brian in his early 60's or so. He was pretty open with us because he remembers when he was a little kid almost 50 years ago his parents would have the Mormon missionaries over to their house and teach them, and he even recognized the Book of Mormon in our hands. He said he's never seen missionaries around since then, and long story short we're going to meet up with him sometime soon, hopefully. And guess what? We literally met him because I wanted to tract his street: Landon Place. I've seen streets and places with my last name every now and again, but my first name? AND the correct spelling? I've never seen anything like it before, so there wasn't any way I was going to pass that opportunity up.

We've still got a lot of investigators under our belt, and even though we try to meet with them they're just so busy. We'll keep trying, but man life sure does seem to get in the way sometimes.

So in my studies I've come across a few questions that I have, and it's interesting how simple this gospel is and yet, how the questions always keep multiplying. The question that I've been kinda wondering is, why is the Sword of Laban of such great importance? I mean, let’s be honest, it was passed down from generation to generation to the greatest prophets and kings in the American continent, and was passed down all the way to the hands of Joseph Smith in this last dispensation, and in the Journal of Discourses 19:38-39 Brigham Young says some really interesting things about the Sword of Laban, and I was just thinking "What is the eternal significance to it all? Why the Sword of Laban? Is there something here that'll strengthen my faith?" It's pretty interesting some of the things of this Gospel, but it's awesome. Still looking for an answer to that though, but hey it'll come.

I've also realized how absolutely blessed we are to have a prophet on earth. It's insane! We don't have to flounder around these stormy waters on a piece of floating plywood trying to survive with whatever we can scrape together: we have a ship! A seriously sturdy one that we can stay on as long as we are willing to keep the commandments and abide by the law of that ship. Sure we can abandon ship and go out on a lifeboat and try to look for another way, but to what? Just for the storm to eventually destroy that boat into floating plywood as well, and then we're begging back on that ship. I know that Jesus Christ is at the helm of this vessel, steering us to shore, the prophet is acting as co-captain, and all we need to do is obey the orders to man the sails of this ship. If we can pull our weight on this boat of the Gospel, we can look forward to eventually landing on that shore which is the Promised Land. Either until He comes again or calls me home, He can count on me to pull whatever ropes he needs me to or man whatever sails that need to be manned. To have a prophet of God giving orders that are perfect and in return promises our safety is a lifelong advantage to have that many others don't have, and similarly, I've found that many people will reject the safety of the ship on this stormy sea because they don't want to man the sails. It's sad to see my brothers and sisters bob up and down until eventually they never come back up, but we're looking for the ones who want back on that ship. If you aren't yet on the perfect ship built by the Lord, I would highly suggest it: and to do it hastily.

I love each and every one of you, and for those of you who email me and I don't get the chance or time to respond, just know that I really appreciate it and love it. Love all y'all's, and as always God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

 It was Elder Theurer's birthday and we celebrated

 it with the District after District Meeting,

Yummy birthday cake!

That same day was also Bring Your Own Cup Day at 7-11

For a buck you could bring in basically anything to fill with Slurpee.

 It was awesome!

It exists... IT EXISTS!!!

It exists... IT EXISTS!!!

 So the past couple of nights during our free time 

I've been working on a couple of sign journal pages. 

They're pretty dang dandy....

This week's been pretty great though, juss sayin'. Zone P-Day was great, and we spent a lot of time just kinda jumping around at the beach and playing around with the Zone. I'll talk more about it when I get home in a couple of weeks: not really worth writing too much about other than we had a ton of fun.

Awesome youth stake activity with Elder Theurer

The rest of the week has been pretty busy, especially Saturday. We had a youth Stake activity that the entire Zone participated in, and Sister McFadden and Brother Gilbert are the Young Men and Young Women Stake Presidents, and they put together a GREAT youth Stake activity. It was mainly Fear Factor themed, and so a lot of photos will probably be of a bunch of kids with some kind of food in their mouth looking like they're about to vomit. The best was the "goldfish walk". Basically beforehand they had one kid from each of the six teams participate, and before they were blindfolded they were shown a tarp with about 25 bags of live goldfish. They were told that the fish would be let out ALIVE on the tarp, and that they'd have to walk on the tarp blindfolded and try not to step on any of the goldfish that would be flopping around. Now of course we wouldn't do something like that, so while Brother Gilbert took the six volunteers away Sister McFadden announced to the remaining youth that we weren't actually going to do that: that's just cruel. Instead, we took the bagged fish off the tarp and threw PEACHES all over the tarp instead, and so when the six contestants came back blindfolded they walked across the tarp stepping all over these peaches and were screaming and jumping all over the place, thinking they were walking all over these poor helpless little fish. Of course we showed them what they were actually stepping on at the end of it all, but it was hilarious during the process. Good times, good times.

Sunday was pretty great because we were just BUSY BUSY BUSY! We had church, like normal, then after that we had a lesson with a new contact that is now interested in learning about the gospel further, and the great thing is that we brought a great member with is to help us out with the lesson. Her name is Jessie, and she'll probably be a main topic of the next couple of emails. After that we went to the Browns for a dinner appointment with like 20 family members so it was absolutely NUTS with a TON of food, and that was great. THEN after that we went to a face-to-face video broadcast with Elder Jeffery R. Holland and President Henry B. Eyring since we had an investigator named Lachie (pronounced"Lock-ee") come with us, and let me tell ya, THAT was amazingly spiritual. I really wish I would've taken things like that more seriously before my mission, because THAT was something else. It was literally like a one-on-one with a General Authority from the church in a kinda General Conference setting. It was fantastic, Elder Theurer and I both loved the heck out of it.

We went on exchanges with the Assistants this week too, and that was great, but I've gotta be honest, this week I've just been having these insanely huge bouts of insecurity, like I'm not good enough and I never really have been. I don't know why, but to be honest Elder Theurer is a really good companion... he's just not the most encouraging a lot of the time. He's got a good skill at making people feel like they're not trying hard enough, but sometimes that message of "You're not doing your best" begins to wear at your bones and breaks down your self esteem to be told that all the time, every day. Even though I feel like I truly am trying my absolute hardest to not fizzle out these last two transfers, sometimes I still get those doubtful thoughts that maybe I really AM not trying my best. And then it makes me feel bad, because I shouldn't beat myself up for not doing my best when in reality, I truly feel like I am. But then he says I'm not, and that message has been repeated to me so often during the past month, and even the Assistants kind of put thoughts like that into my head as well that I'm not trying my best, and then I'm just like "Well what the heck? Am I doing my best or not?" It's brought me into tears of frustration at times, whether I really am doing my best or not, but I just wanted to tell you that because I feel it's important for you to know that even though I'm on a mission and I should be at the pinnacle of it all, I still do struggle sometimes. And that's perfectly normal, even expected. Missionaries DO have struggles; all of us do, a lot of them, but through the atonement of Jesus Christ, which is a serious thing, trials can be overcome. I try not to speak of my own struggles so that rest back home is assured, but for some reason I feel this is an important one to speak about for those back home and to those who read. Sometimes, all you can do is just hold on and keep going. I feel that progression is eternal, but not constant. There are times where growth is fast, increasing, and enjoyable, and other times growth feels like it's seeping poison into your veins slwoly but surely, moving at snail speed and in the most unpleasant way possible. But the fact of the matter is that the growth is nonetheless there: it may waver in quality and quantity, but even if it's horribly slow, it's still there. I feel I'm growing slowly at this point of my mission, but growth is still present. I refuse to regress or even stand still in progression.

This next week's gonna be awesome, because we've got about a million more things that need to be done as well: luckily a couple of the people we've talked to on the train in the past couple of weeks have gotten back to us and we're hopefully going to meet with them this week, and we've got two sets of exchanges with Elder Cuenca (for those of you who remember him when I was his companion in Seymour), and we've got Zone interviews with President Vidmar as well. So much stuff going on, this week is again going to just speed by. Anyways, love you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

WE ARE THE BOOK OF MORMON POP-UP STAND!!!!

There was tons of gross food competitions, but what was funny
was that the winners were usually the young girls
with no fear of anything,,

Breakfast at the Stinchcombes with the Zone

I love my tiny little companion (even though he's my height he's
like 50 lbs less than I am so he is by my definition a tiny man)

I threw my pen at Elder Theurer and it landed
perfectly like this. It cannot be replicated.

 

The hike to Bush Rangers Ba

Not too sure what Elder Timothy's doing over there...

Hey guys sorry I wasn't on yesterday: busy busy Zone P-Day! But I'm on now! But you know what makes me mad? You know what just gets my water boiling? You know what just grinds my gears? You know what really flips my nine year old? When people we meet on the train never get back to us or never answer their dang phones!!! A bit of back story, but I'll get to that. Monday was pretty dang great because we were actually able to go out with the Stinchcombes. They're like an hour away from us so that took out a chunk of our monthly mileage, but that's alright because hopefully we're able to make up for it. Somehow. Anyways, it was totally worth it. We picked strawberries at this one place where you could eat as many as you wanted and then fill up a small plastic container with them, and they were sweet too. Sister Stinchcombe went to some forbidden area of the picking farm and said to all of us "Come join me over in the great and spacious building!" That was pretty dang funny, and what was great was that we even had to jump over this small river in order to even get there. We also went blackberry picking and to an awesome beach, and then we went to their home to turn our berries into syrup and eat buttermilk pancakes that were GREAT!!! All in all it was a greatly utilized P-Day.

We have our berry pickin' booties on!

Tuesday and Wednesday was basically just going back and forth on the train trying to talk to people about the restored gospel. Tuesday was fun because we went to go visit a nine year old recent convert who lives with her returning-to-activity aunt. Her aunt was a LITTLE bit drunk, so she and her niece were having fun and then suddenly she carried her niece over her shoulder. And, you know, being drunk and having no coordination, she fell and slammed her niece's knee into the concrete. WWE Superslam status. It looked like it hurt and I felt pretty bad it happened, but at the same time I couldn't help but laugh and what happened after the matter. And as far as contacting people on the train goes, I have no clue why, but literally in the past week I've had four guys who are absolutely off-their-rocker nutso come up and talk to me: all of them probably on ice. None of them talked to Elder Theurer, just me. I don't know, maybe I just attract the crazies.

Just street contacting on an empty train car. The best..

We had a pretty funny experience though while on the train. There was a couple of feet between Elder Theurer and I, and he got on the train before I did. Well, right as he got on the doors closed, and I was only right behind him, but the doors locked and went without me. I just kind of waved goodbye to him as the train slowly took off with Theurer in it, and so I was on the train platform by myself. Haha, sweet. I wasn't worried or anything, but I just asked this girl about my age if I could use her phone to call Theurer who had our phone. Well we  she and I both got on the train and Theurer got on the train with at the next stop, and long story short that girl named Emily ended up being a new contact. I kinda knew that something like that would happen, because Heavenly Father just has the greatest sense of humor. "I'm just gonna go ahead and separate these two missionaries for half an hour so that they can do my work in a way that needs to be done". Ahh, good times. We'll be teaching her in about two weeks’ time or so when she's got the time, but as for everyone else we've met on the train, they're pretty hard to get back in contact with once they give us their number. It's kinda disappointing, but we ain't givin' up on them yet.

The Stinchcombes also took us to thebeach, it was awesome!

Thursday was great because we got to teach a new contact that Elder Theurer and his old companion Elder Babneau (my MTC companion) found, and he's one of the most genuine people I've ever met. He was SO open in discussing his questions that he has, and his questions were along the lines of "Why am I here? What's the purpose of life? How can I find these answers?" Gosh, so genuine in what he wants. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he'll begin a slow process of reading it, and we're going to go see him on tomorrow, so wish us the best of luck!

Saturday was pretty great because we basically had nothing scheduled: usually in the line of missionary work that really sucks because it's "Oh man, I guess we just kinda fill our time with finding activities", but Theurer and I take the bus to the train station to find. It takes longer than driving, but it was fun to just kinda get lost on the bus and figure out where we needed to go as we went. We had that kinda time on our hands to use like that. We had some good conversations with people and I was able to give someone a Book of Mormon which felt really great. So, in door knocking I'm about as bold as it can get because Elder Worsencroft trained me that way, but I was never really introduced to real street contacting until I was in Eltham almost a year ago, so street contacting is still a foreign thing to me for the most part. Elder Theurer's trainer though, Elder Steele, was a street contacting master, and so he knows street contacting inside and out. Our modes of finding between Elder Theurer and I are COMPLETE opposites, but he's teaching me the ropes of it, and I feel like I'm getting better at it. You can still teach an old dog Elder new tricks. Yesterday was basically church, ward council, and eating. We taught an investigator named Eddie that's been coming to church for like the past four months or so, and he hasn't really had official lessons until then. He's 26 and Samoan, and he's pretty keen to learn but baptism might be a bit of a distance a ways. We'll see how he goes. Last night was great though because we spent the night in the Hastings flatt, and if you remember Hastings was my flatt of first inheritance with Elder Worsencroft. It was pretty cool going and spending the night there, but when Croft and I were in it the flatt was BRAND SPANKIN' NEW, but after almost two years of missionaries staying in it... it was a bit different. And dirtied up. But it was still kinda fun to stay there and be like "Hey! This was my first Aussie home!"

beautiful view at the beach in Australia

So last night after our Zone P-Day (I'll talk about Zone P-Day next week) we got in contact with Carly and Hailey. Remember, the two girls that we talked to on the train about 10 days ago and had high hopes for them? Well, turns out they were both about as plastered drunk as it could get and said that they wanted nothing to do with us anymore, saying that getting drunk and partying every night was the way to live. What the heck? It was absolutely gut-wrenching to see 15 YEAR OLD GIRLS LIVING LIKE THIS!!! Sure it's their life, but it's going nowhere very fast. It was really sad, and it disturbed me for the rest of the night. Even now I don't like to think about it... I hate to be dark and dismal, but the way I see it, this world is as the scriptures say "ripe for destruction".

So that's been my week, and things still keep going great. The transfer's already halfway over, which means I've only got nine weeks left. Strange. But hey love you all, and next week I'll tell y'all's about how this P-Day today went. I love you all, and as always, God be with you till we meet again.

-Elder Landon Cook

Ponderize: Helaman 1:21

Dangerous cliff climbing at the beach... NOT

searching the beach for treasures

Beach view

Beach view

Our group at the beach

Good Times

Elder Theurer Found a tiny cave.  lol

Blackberry picking and strawberry picking w/ the Stinchcombes,

My companions portion he took home

My portion didn't make it home

Store where they sell lots of berry stuff

all our cute booties for berry picking

District Lunch after District Meeting

We couldn't find cups to use at the chapel
so we just used these instead

It was like a quarter sip for every one. totally worth it

so bright outside we cant open our eyes...
or we are just being silly young men

Found this sleepy little possum animal just chillin
inside a train station overhang