Free Medical Care for All! Go, Obama!

Cessnock is going good, lots and lots of tracting! But things are going great. Lots and lots of trials and tribulations but it is not called enduring to the end for nothing! But I’m right, through it all my testimony is growing stronger and stronger and I am realizing how real the gospel and the atonement are! It is amazing! Let me get to the week.

So it has been another great week! Lots of miracles and manifestations that Jesus does live. It is incredible! This past week we have been busy figuring out the area and where we are in this huge area we are in.

So here are our investigators:

Ben and Sarah-Jane - They live in a town called North Rothbury. They have been learning for a few months and they love the Church. They have three kids - Rome, Milan and I am forgetting the youngest name. They are so close to baptism but they are not married and they want to get married but they want to get married on their tenth anniversary of meeting each other which is next March so… That puts a damper on things but we will continue to bring the spirit into their home and hopefully the spirit will touch their hearts.

The Bennetts - The Bennetts are a less active family who have three foster kids who want to get baptized and man did the sisters do a good job teaching them they are sharp as! They are so smart! The only hurdle there is getting permission from their actual parents so we will see how that goes!

Robert Murphey - Robert was a Headquarter Referral and in my book he is golden. He is studying Cosmology, at first I thought it was Cosmetology but I am just illiterate, any way the Lord has prepared him! Through his study of the universe he has come to the conclusion that it is too perfect to have happened by chance so he is looking for a religion and nothing has sounded good until he met us! We set a baptismal goal for the 17 April so we will see how that goes.

Those are the solid investigators and I wont lie it is a good bunch. I hope I can help them resolve concerns and all that jazz.

Besides that we have been tracting. We are out of kilometres for the month so we have been biking a lot, and since our area is so huge we have to block out an hour or so to travel to appointments but I am cool with that because it keeps the blood flowing and it is like mountain biking which is fun, minus the part that we have to travel along side a free way but it is good fun. I love this area because as we travel from town to town we usually see mobs, which is what a group of roos is called, in the fields. It is so neat and I just love it!

I went on an exchange with Elder Lord, he is the zone leader. And wow he is the man. He knows how to talk to people, something I have a real hard time doing but from the exchange I learned so much!

Well that’s all from down under! I love you all and just love this gospel! I had a neat experience where we visited a less active and when he let us in he just started thrashing the church and I didn’t know how to answer him all I could say was I know it is true and that is all I need to touch the hearts of the people of Cessnock.

Elder Landon Brough

Welcome to Cessnock Mine, Wine and People

So I arrived safely in Cessnock. The subject was the sign that welcomed you to Cessnock, I will talk about Cessnock more in my letter. Sounds like you are having a blast down in AZ. I am loving it here. It is tough but I love it. Zach is still engaged. That is great. You will probably need my picture really quick. I will work on it. But I am glad you all had a good spring break and happy anniversary Mom and Dad.

So I am here in beautiful Cessnock safe and sound. The drive up here was pretty good. It took about three hours because Elder Chan and I had to drop off another elder in our district but we made it. Australia is so green, something I am not used to coming from Arizona but it is so beautiful here! The Cessnock ward boundaries are huge!!! When we were driving to Cessnock we came across a sign that said Welcome to Cessnock Mine, Wine and People and I thought, "Cool! We are here."... twenty minutes later we actually arrive in the town. But back to the area, it takes about two and a half hours to drive across it. It takes in about 7 towns; Cessnock, Kurri Kurri, Branxton, Singletown, Musswellbrook, Abermain and Weston, just to name the bigger ones and the drive takes about 15 mintues to an hour and half to get to them. Needless to say it is huge. It was a little intimidating at first. We get 2500 kilometers a month and of course at transfers the sisters who were here gave us the keys to the car and said just so you know you are pretty much out of kilometers so we have been using the bikes heaps! But we will survive!

A little bit about Cessnock, all the towns here are named after mines, they mine coal here so a lot of the members work in the mines. There are also heaps of vineyards. The church building is on top of a hill and looks over our area and you can see rolling hills with vineyards and it is beautiful!

The flat is way nice! It was a originally used by a senior couple so we are spoiled, from all the stories Zach told me about his flats on his mission, he would be dumbfounded by how nice these flats are but it is so nice and it was very clean, minus the hair I keep finding. We keep running into spiders! We caught a Huntsman which can get as big as your hand but the one we caught is only as big as your palm but it is intense. They are nasty little things but are neat to look at.

The members are awesome! The heart of the branch consists of three families, The Faustinis, Hills and Hamiltons. They all had like ten kids and they all married each other so everyone is related needless to say family history is really easy in this ward. But the members here are incredible! So spiritual and willing to help the missionaries. This ward has not had elders in it for three years so Elder Chan and I are the first for a long time. Many of the youth seem confused when they see us because we are the missionaries, have deep voices have short hair and wear pants so elders are foreign to the youth here but I am loving the ward more and more! We have an All Star Cast for the Bishopric. We have Hugh Jackman as Bishop, Conon O’Brien as first counselor and Lex Luther as second counselor. It was really funny as I sat there in church looking at them when it all clicked. But the ward has an awesome vibe and I can’t wait to get to know them more!

This is going to be the ward where I pick up an accent. Multiple ward members have corrected me on my pronunciation so come Mother's Day I will have a thick Aussie accent.

As far as missionary work goes we have a few investigators but nothing too serious. We are still separating the wheat from the tares so to speak. I won't lie the sisters didn’t leave an amazing area book so I am trying to figure it all out but it is coming along nicely. The actual people in Cessnock are interesting. There are a lot of drug and alcohol problems like I mean heaps upon heaps so that is a barrier and there are bogans… yeah I know that is a new word. Bogan is to Australia as Redneck is to America so I am sure I am going to have lots of funny stories but we have only been here a week but we will see. I love you all so much and the Church is true. It is manifested to me day in and day out in so many different ways. I love this work!

Elder Landon Brough

Oh, The Places You Go

Zach you are flipping engaged that is so cool! I have the same feelings I had when I asked someone to marry me on Harvest Moon! I am so sad I won’t be there but, yes, Mom I will get a picture of me. I will send two, one of me standing straight for pictures and one of me dancing for the reception, it will be great! I want to know how Zach asked Tara TO MARRY HIM. I still think that is crazy!

Eric congrats on your call to Montana that will be awesome! Wow, one crazy week! Let me get to it.

Felicity is great but we are still working on a date. She has a desire but smoking is standing in her way

So first off we had mission tour this week. Elder Hamula, he is in the area presidency, came. It was incredible. The spirit was so strong and I learned so much. Both Elder Chan and I did. I had a reconfirmation that I am called of God and that I need to be here. There was one part where he opened up the meeting to questions and an elder asked about overcoming fears of talking to everyone; believe it or not I have been having a real hard time with talking to everyone but he said something that just hit me. He said if you don’t talk to everyone it is a lack of faith that God can do his work through you. It was exactly what both Elder Chan and I needed, so we have not let another person get by us, or at least we try. But mission tour was so good and I am so happy to be on a mission right now!

Also transfers were this week….. I am being transferred to a place called Cessnock, it is up near New Castle. And my companion is Elder Chan still so I am excited about that. But besides that I am scared out of my mind! But the Lord knows I need to be there! I know I need to be there and I will go where the Lord wants me to go. I was gutted though, I love this ward so much! It is hard for me to think that I have to go start all over again when it comes to relationships with the members and investigators but my work here is done and I am ready for Cessnock.

A Tongan member in the ward was telling me he spent a year up in Cessnock going to uni (University). I thought cool, I later found out that there is no university in Cessnock, he was referring to the prison. So that is funny, Cessnock, as far as I know is pretty country. Elder Boardman, the assistant said it is all gum trees and dirt. It will be fun and I am excited to go there.

I miss you all and love being a missionary and hope to hear from you all soon.

Elder L. Raphael Brough

(We were able to "chat" with Landon for a minute and I asked him when he was leaving and told him that I hoped that the elders that they were replacing would be leaving a detailed area book and this was his response)

We leave tomorrow so we are here today and there were sisters in the area so I am sure the area book will be very neat and that there will be hair everywhere. I have to drive up there, too, which will be an adventure.

A Really Really Slow Week

I love you guys and Dalton you sound so busy my friend, good on you! Glad to hear Mesquite is doing well in volleyball. Are you ranked? So just to get the questions out of the way, my email is taken care of so no need to worry about that anymore. Last week we had interviews on Monday so our preparation day was on Tuesday, my bad. I baptized Brendan and his girlfriend's dad confirmed him. Tell grandma and grandpa thank you very much for the package. It was very rude of me but I will tell you the missionaries in my flat loved it. I love the picture of our family! I am so proud of Seth he is going to love it! I feel bad, I don’t have much to say it has been a very slow week! But here we go.

Well thank you Elder Gillette for the letter and pictures. You are going to have a blast down in Argentina! There are 5 families in the ward from Argentina and whenever I visit them I think of all my friends down in Argentina. I also ran into a lady from Armenia, so here is a shout out to Nathan Zuniga, good luck to you all and shake hell! And to Seth Wilcock, you’re the man and you will have a blast down south!

SO my week has been very very slow! We only have one investigator and she is getting baptized next week so Elder Chan and I are frantically looking for people to teach.

Felicity O’Brien- We had to push her date back a week but it is nothing to worry about she is ready for baptism but she feels a little nervous and smoking keeps rearing its ugly little head but we are praying for her and doing all we know how to help her so if it is not next week it will probably be the week after

Besides that I have got nothing, I know I am lame I am all the way down in Australia and I have nothing. It is hot here! I sweat a lot here but you all knew that already. I feel bad I have nothing exciting to say…. Fair dinkum mate. Oh I helped install sheet rock for five hours the other day, and then the family invited us to Outback Steakhouse, I thought that was funny.

Elder Chan is the man, He is really skinny but he likes to wrestle me, I don’t know why but I humor him that is always fun. He always cooks rice all the time which is expected but I enjoy it. I love him though. Heis the man and is teaching me Cantaneese and I love it!

So yeah this has been a lame letter! But I love being a missionary. I am really loving it. I am sad because I have already been out 4 months. Sad day but I am going to do my best! I love you all and I wish you could be here! Oh so I really can't remember what it is like to drive on the right side of the road anymore. It is weird… I am being Aussified!!! Remember Who you Are!

Elder Landon Brough

Brendan Burke's Baptism!

So thank you Aly Brignone, Aly Bevan, Heidi Pang and Elder Joshua Smith for the letters. They were great! So this email is going to be short so sorry we are doing something as a district. So pretty much the Highlights of the week: Brendan Burke was baptized this past week and it rocked! The service went so smoothly and the spirit was so strong! I am so glad to have been a part of his baptism. Now I want him and his girlfriend to get married so I can see them get sealed in the temple in a year, yeah I may sound selfish but I will be crossing my fingers! I went on an exchange with one of my new Zone Leaders, his name is Elder Nelson, he is from California and is exactly like me, exactly! Like it was weird… but I love him we like all the same music so that was nice because I am sick of Elder Chan talking about all his Chinese Hip Hop Artists, no just kidding he is not that weird. But Elder Nelson’s and my exchange was incredible and he has helped me a lot! I love living with the assistants! It is so nice to have experienced missionaries close by! There is one I just love! His name is Elder Boardman, he reminds me exactly like Kevin Jones, so I think that is why we get a long so well. He is hilarious but has helped me answer a lot of questions I have had! We actually had a really cool experience this morning, we go running together in the morning, that started today, we were about to leave at 6:30 when we noticed a mess that we needed to clean up so we didn’t get out the door till about 6:45 so we are running and we just so happen to see a member walking home from the gym. We run past him and say hi and keep running, well Elder Boardman is jogging because I am fat and out of shape, but when we pass the member he says hey elders do you think you could come in and give my son a blessing, he has been up all night throwing up. So we happily said yes. It is not an incredible experience but I was in the right place at the right time. God knew that there were going to be four missionaries who don’t keep the cleanest flat who would wake up this morning and have to clean something up that really needed to be, God knew that Elder Boardman and I would go running this morning and God knew that we would change our route this morning so we would run in front of this member's house and God knew that that little boy would need a blessing and that two worthy and willing priesthood holders would be there. I love how God knows, I love how he uses us, 19 and 20 year old boys, to be a part of this amazing work! The church is true and even though missions are tough, tiring, confusing and so hard they are so worth it! I am so thankful to be here and build Gods kingdom and build me! I love you all, I am excited to hear the Gillettes are almost off to Argentina and that Braden is safe and that Kevin and Seth are about to begin this incredible adventure in the coming weeks. I seriously can't put my emotions into words! I love being a missionary!!! Elder Landon Brough