It's Gonna Rain!

Hello, this week has been really good! It has been raining heaps, like so much! If the rumors are true, my wife is going to be very pretty when I get back! We have done a lot of tracting and walking around Cessnock talking to people and it is tough! People really don't give you the time of day, instantly people say not interested and they slam the door, especially this week! I am not just saying that even to make it sound better like slammed door after slammed door, my ears are still ringing! People reject you so much here, WOW, once you actually find some one who will listen you don't know really what to say. But it is all good! There is a Scripture I found the other day that talked about the elect will hear our voice as the voice of the Lord and I am quickly learning that it is not really important what I say it is just important that I say something but sadly another week has gone by and we don't have any new investigators but Aly and Ryan are still on track for their baptism on the 12th. We taught them the Word of Wisdom this past week, just to see how they would respond to the commandments and they gladly accepted to keep it so that was exciting to see but Law of Chastity is this week so hopefully I can report next week that all is well! We talked to Robert about how Aly will accept the Law of Chastity and he said she cried when he talked to her about it... I don't know what that means but Robert said keep bringing the spirit and things will work out! Elder Hill and I have talked about it and we both agree that they know it is coming. They have a calender that has everything we are going to teach them before their baptism so they know it is coming this week and they still came to church and enjoyed it and they agreed to have us over this week so keep praying for them that the Holy Ghost will teach them these things are true! As for Robert he is a stud (to quote Elders Gillette when they meet cool people in Argentina)! They had a stake priesthood meeting and he moved around his schedule just so he could make it. It was so incredible to see him so excited about everything in the church! On Sunday he was going to bless the sacrament and he showed up in a purple suit coat so I said with a chuckle you will want to take that off and he agreed and Elder Hill, Robert and I blessed the sacrament and Robert blessed the bread... he was so nervous and everything went well until the last line so he started over and after we went through the blessing about 6 times he got it. But I loved watching him do it. I was just thinking about how three months ago me and Elder Chan walked into his living room and taught him the restoration and now here he is helping 100 disciples of Christ renew their covenants with God. It was a powerful experience! He also received a speaking assignment for two weeks time about his conversion story and he is very excited about that. I just love what the restored Gospel does for people. That from it being restored we can understand where we came from why we are here and the potential we all have and it is such an incredible experience to see Robert, a gym junkie, liquor store employee realize his potential! Speaking of what the gospel can do for people... through Robert I was able to see the transformation. When I first met him, he had a goatee and a pierced eyebrow. After he was baptized he lost the piercing because it closed up when he forgot to put it back in after his baptism. Then when he received the priesthood he lost the goatee. I just thought I would throw that in there.

Elder Hill got peed on by Robert's dog while we were teaching Aly. It was funny as!

I had my last interview with President Scruggs this past week. It was so powerful. His instruction was so powerful! And after our interview we knelt with President Scruggs and he offered a prayer, so amazing. It blows my mind to see how much faith President Scruggs has in a bunch of 19 and 20 and 21 year old boys. I seriously can't put into words how confident he is and it strengthens my testimony so much! I have been called by a prophet who has been called by God to bring the people of the Australia Sydney North Mission and at this time the people of Cessnock the restored Gospel and the potential we missionaries have is incredible and I honestly have a hard time wrapping my mind around it! I love this work I love my Heavenly Father and I know he lives. I know the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, lives and that I am surrounded by his children everywhere I go and as I bear my testimony hopefully the spirit will touch their hearts that these things are true and important to them! I love you so much and I am so thankful that our family is eternal and that no matter what happens we will be together forever. Love you so much, enjoy the wedding. I would give anything to be there except my mission. Can't wait to hear how it goes. Till next week.

Elder Landon Brough

Tick Tock. Tick Tock. I'm a little coo coo clock. Now, I'm striking two o'clock. Coo Coo.

So to explain the subject... as we sit here in the library every Monday at 10:30 there is a class or something where mothers can bring their babies and sing songs and that was the song that they were singing as I thought about the subject. Random.. yes but remember it is me who is writing this.

So this week has been an incredible week! There were not too many exciting things but the few exciting things made this week amazing! So the most exciting news is that we have two baptismal dates. Ali Murphy. That is Robert's sister and her boyfriend Ryan Callagham. We taught them a few times this week and I know they have felt the spirit, especially Ali. We set their date for the 12th of June. Everything seems to be going well but we have not taught them the make or break commandments, that's what I call them. You know, Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom and Tithing, so hopefully they have both had a powerful witness from the Holy Ghost so that they won't be a problem. With the help of Robert I am sure things will be OK. Speaking of Robert he is doing so well! He helped bless the sacrament this past Sunday and that was so cool to see. He, of course had no idea what exactly he should do so I had a good laugh watching the priests whisper, "Stand up." to him a few times. He said he really enjoyed it. As far as missionary work is going we are still doing a lot of tracting and we have made a huge push on contacting formers so hopefully we can help others prepare for baptism and confirmation!

We made another trip up to Scone this past Saturday. There is a family that lives right next to a lake called Glen Bawn Reservoir. She is American and he is Australian as! But they are both way cool. He was a bull rider and he went to America to bull ride and he ended up staying with some members in Georgia and they introduced him to the Gospel and then he met his wife over there as well. They are the Burkes and I love them. They made us Philly Cheese Stakes and they were fairdinkum as, mate! Brother Burke then showed us around this huge dam that his brother in law manages and it was way cool. We also saw heaps of roos. It is making me a little sad but kangaroos are not as cool anymore. Maybe because I see them heaps and I have had too many unpleasent interactions. I am just being bitter but that one that kicked was a jerk and it kind of hurt! On our way back down to Cessnock we visited a new family in the ward who just moved from New Mexico, the Perkins family, it was fun to sit around with them and explain how silly Australia and Australians are. It was great!

We also had a ward triva night and it was so much fun. A lot of it was Australian trivia so I didn't know the answers but then they asked what state is the Grand Canyon in and I had to control myself from blurting out the answer. Nobody knows here. They said Nevada and Colorado. AZ doesn't get the respect it deserves.

I love you all! Miss you heaps too! I have not been good with letting everyone know when I have received their letters but I have gotten quite a few these past few weeks so I know I am not forgotten. The Church is true and I know Jesus Christ lives!

Elder Landon Brough

The Roo's Revenge

Good day mates! I loved talking with you last Monday! It was so good and a little weird to hear all your voices but I loved it! So let me tell you a story. So after I called home Elder Hill and I went to the Hunter Valley Zoo. (Note from Nancy: When he called us on our Sunday it was his Monday which is his preparation day) It is basically a farm that an old couple turned into a zoo but they have heaps of Australian wildlife. So we got there and there was a total of seven people there including the people working there but it was cool to have the zoo pretty much to ourselves but there was a pen that had kangaroos in it and we were allowed to go in so we did and we also bought ice cream cones that were full of feed for the roos and other wildlife so we could have an enjoyable experience and one of the roos saw the cones. They all hopped to us so we started feeding the roos the little pellets but they wouldn't have it. All they wanted was the cone but me being the stubborn person I am said, "No, Roo, I don't like you so you are not getting the cone". So me and this roo were getting all up in each others faces about it and there were some colorful words exchanged and basically the roo didn't get the cone so I decided to tease it a little just to show off my apposable thumbs (didn't spell that right) and I held the cone right out of reach for the roo and I was having a good laugh until out of nowhere this roo kicks me, barely missing my groin. At this point I give the roo the cone and limped away, counting my blessings of the near hit that I almost experienced. So, Elder Brough-1 Kangaroos-1. So it is even now but I am on the hunt to nail another roo. Just kidding. I love God's creatures.

That was a pretty exciting experience. The zoo overall was pretty cool and I got to touch a koala. Jealous eh? There was also a Stake MTC thing where they invited the missionaries to teach workshops about missionary work and Elder Hill and I went and we had a blast! It was so much fun to actually be looked at as "the missionary". It was a great experience and second to the baptisms I was able to see it was the best day of my mission! The only bummer was I let some of the kids use my Preach my Gospel to follow along and when I got it back I found some inappropriate pictures in my Preach my Gospel. Silly little immature Australian kids but what can you do?

We also had zone conference this week so Elder Hill and I had to travel down and stay in another area and I got to stay in Winston Hills for half a day and I was able to work with some of the members. We also had tea with the Lakes and got to see Te atawhai and Te raumiria, and got to go on trade offs with the bishop. Oh, man it was a good day and then we had an amazing Zone Conference. President Scruggs is incredible and we only have one more interview and zone conference with him and that is pretty sad but luckily it is all in the Lord's hands.

The guy next to me just asked me how to spell retard, oh, man you have to love Australia.

So those are some highlights of the week but the best was with Robert. Robert received the Aaronic Priesthood and he taught Elders Quorumn. Yeah Robert taught it and he did a phenominal job! He is one of the Lord's elect and has been prepared. Also he mentioned something about "his" mission the other day so that was exciting to hear. We also were finally able to find two new investigators. The Paynters, that is the ward mission leader, invited Robert over for tea and Robert invited his sister and her boyfriend over as well so we came after tea and shared about the Plan of Salvation with them and Robert was able to bear such a powerful simple testimony and he helped bring the spirit. They both accepted a return appointment and we are hoping Robert will be able to baptize them next month so we will see.

I love the gospel I just love how it makes sense. Put aside the spiritual witness that I have had over and over again but it just makes sense! I love it! Wow! I am repeating myself. I know this is the Lord's work and I have been called of God. I love you all and can't wait to hear from you next week!

Elder Landon Brough

News from Cessnock

So this has been a good week! A very good week. So Tuesday was transfers and I had to wake up at 3:00 so we could get Elder Chan to our district leaders' flat by 4:30 so they could get down to Sydney for transfers. It was tough but I survived. I then worked in the Maitland area for a bit and I worked with Elder Shoobridge. He is from Tazmania and a pretty good bloak. We worked in his area till his new companion and my new companion got there, Elder Hill. I will talk more about him later. But once he got there I said hi and said well let's go back to Sydney and we had to drive down so we could trade our car with another so we are not driving around Cessnock with a huge chunk of our bumper missing. So we drove down and did that and we had heaps to talk about. He is the man! He is from Walla Walla, Washington and he has been a life long member and reminds me a bit of Mitch Janda so that is way neat. He went to BYU-I for a spell and now he is here. His dad is a baker and he is walking in his fathers footsteps. He is a good baker. Last night he made bread, straight up made a loaf of bread! It was so delicious. I was not even hungry and I ate half a loaf. But besides that he wants to work and has been able to strengthen me and help me become a better, stronger, faster, and better looking missionary so I am excited to have Elder Hill as my companion. But I won't lie. I do miss Elder Chan's broken English testimony.

So a little bit about Robert... it went so well. We had his baptism at 11:00 but he didnt show up until about 11:02. Knowing me I was pacing and worrying up a storm but he made it. There was also a very good turn out. He had about 9 friends and family members there as well as half the ward so it was so good. The service went so smoothly and the spirit was there. It was so cool to see him have a nervous/excited appearance and he loved it. The next day at his confirmation he showed up in a T-shirt so we grabbed him a shirt from the baptismal cloth closet and he looked fine. The confirmation went very well and then the testimony meeting began and he bore his testimony to end the meeting. It was so cool to hear and to be there but above all to see how the gospel has changed his life. He has truly received of the spirit of Christ and has developed a personal relationship with our Savior. The more I think about it the more I realize how I really did nothing. I basically showed and brought the spirit and really felt how I can be an instrument in the Lord's hands and I pray I can be able to see the gospel influence more lives!

The Church is true and I am learning so much about myself and how real the gospel is. I love you and I am looking forward to talking to you next week.

Elder Landon Brough