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