Zone Conferences and Coconuts

So I have been having a good time down under. I love this place! We have been really busy with zone conferences and that is why I failed to shoot you an email. So I pray you can find it in your heart to forgive poor old Elder Brough!

So this week we just cleaned and cleaned and cleaned out missionaries garages and got ready for the zone conferences in the coming weeks so it was a lot of pretty lame stuff. I made a funny video for the zone conference where I took clips from General Conference and made them say "Clean your apartments!" in clever ways. I will have to show it to you some time... let's say a year from now! Crazy, eh? I hit my year mark. FETCH???? It is seriously so crazy! It makes me sad that it is half over but I know I am going to be loving the next year!

So, there is not much to report on. I can now crack a coconut with my fists. Aren't you proud of me, Mum!? I saw Elder Tou's videos of some missionaries doing it so I thought I would try my hand at it. Actually, I thought I would try my fist at it and I destroyed them! I have some videos I will show you some time. Zone conferences were really good! I don't get to listen because I am too busy doing fleet things for the missionaries like checking their cars and stuff like that but we have a testimony meeting at the end of the conference and I have been able to see the past two testimony meetings and they were incredible! I am really looking forward to the next two this coming week. I just love it! Also a missionary finished his mission yesterday and being in the office we were invited to the departure dinner so that was a cool but weird experience. Elder Kim is going home. There are three elder Kims in our mission and they are all Korean and all happen to be in the same zone so they have nicknames according to where they are from. So we have Elder Cali Kim from Los Angeles, Elder Fiji Kim from Fiji and Elder Philly Kim from Philadelphia. So, back to my story, Elder Fiji Kim was the one going home and it was neat to see the procedure and weird because I still have a year. I told President, "How about same time next year?" He thought it was funny.

So the computer is being dumb and my comp wants to go play rugby so I am being rushed. I honestly can't express the way I feel about you and how much I love you. I will email you in a weeks time. I love you heaps.

Elder Landon Brough

THEN (At the MTC with his companion, Elder Perry, on October 21, 2009)...
...and NOW (at a zone conference exactly one year later on their "hump day", October 21, 2010)

At a zone conference with Elder Stapleton, the brother of one of Zach's mission companions

At a zone conference with Elder Jamie Fagg. He is from the same stake(Ipswich Stake) in England as Landon's cousin, Rachel

With Elder "Fiji" Kim at his departure dinner

Smashing coconuts with his hands

With Elder Tou taking their lunch break at Cronulla Beach


(Note from Nancy: I am trying to figure out why all the pictures that he has been emailing are so small...if anyone can let me know if there is something I can do on my end to get them bigger I'd appreciate it. I've asked him to have someone there see if there is anything he can do from his end. I love technology, WHEN I can figure it out!)

Happy Hump Day!

(Note from Nancy: after only receiving the previous post instead of a letter we wrote him the following on his "hump day" (October 21, 2010):

Happy Hump Day! We really need to hear from you!

The next day we got this:

So I won't be able to write you a full letter this week but I will fill you in on everything on Monday. I love you all so much and I am alive and well. I will be sending pics on monday as well!

Elder Landon Brough

WE were NOT happy, hump day or not!

Love you heaps!

Hey I am busy with office stuff today so I will shoot you a line when I have the time. Love you heaps.

Finally!!! Conference

So I only wrote a few days ago so I don't have much to report on. So, since Thursday I have just been out and about de junking the mission. Whatever, I still love being in the office.

So Friday was pretty fun. I went on splits with the assistants so they could go to two different district meetings. I went with Elder Modlik, whom I love. We went to the Openrith district meeting and then he and I got to go down to the assistants' area in the city. So in the city or the Hyde Park area they have about ten missionaries serving there and it is one of my favorite places to visit because Sydney is such a beautiful city. I can't wait for you to come here Mom and Dad!!!! Anyway, we went to the teaching center in the city. So to clarify that, the church rents or owns a floor of a high rise where they have a chapel for the Ashfield Ward which is a Chinese ward and the Hyde Park Branch which is a YSA branch. Anyway, along with that they have a teaching center. At the teaching center they teach English along with the restored gospel. I love going down there. Since Sydney is a very diverse place so are the missionaries. They are from all over! There were two I really loved, Elder Ding who is from China who didn't even know about Joseph Smith until he came on his mission, and Elder Puentes who is from Chile who I just love. Now, I don't know why I just spent the last five minutes writing this but I just love being here!!! This is my second favorite place on Earth!!!

So I finally was able to watch conference. I sadly have not been able to see all the sessions yet. I have missed the Saturday sessions which broke my heart a bit because I really wanted to go but due to poor planning on another elders part Elder Tou and I had to move one of their investigators while they played rugby... but I am not going to go into details there. Anyway, wasn't conference just incredible? I don't think I have ever been so spiritually edified before and never felt so rebuked before but I love it anyway! The church is so true. President Uchtdorf is the man and I loved Patrick Kearon's talk. I am so excited to see the rest of the talks in the coming weeks. So it was just a really great conference and I can't wait till April!!! Also it was fun because I am in the Greenwich Stake which is the same stake Winston Hills is in. We watch conference at the stake center so I was able to see many members from the Winston Hills ward. Oh my gooseness!*** I love that ward! I was surprised they remembered my name but it was so awesome to see them all again. I am going to try and see if I can end my mission there. But we will see. I still have a while!

The highlight of the week though was Sunday night. President invited Elder Tou, Elder Roessler, Elder Modlik and I to dinner and it was a really good evening. President made a pasta he had a lot on his mission in Rome. We had a wonderful evening. I love President Simmons with all my heart. After dinner we had a really good spiritual thought which basically turned into a huge thank you to President and Sister Simmons. It was just so good!

I just love this work and I am loving life and I love you. I am just full of love!

Love Elder Landon Raphael Brough

***Note from Nancy - that wasn't a typo. Once, years ago, when we went to Rocky Point we were trying to get someone to lower their price on something we wanted to buy and when we said what we wanted to pay, the vender said in his broken English, "Oh, my gooseness, no way!" So, from then on in our family instead of saying, "Oh, my goodness!" we sometimes say, "Oh, my gooseness."

The Magic Missionary

Hello! So, I am not going to lie. Being in the office is great but I am looking back on this week and not much has happened. This email will probably not be too exciting. But if I could tell you in person it would be different because like Nephi says in 2 Nephi 33:1 ..."I, Nephi, cannot write all the things which were taught among my people; neither am I mighty in writing, like unto speaking;..." but I will give it my best effort.

Thank you for writing me. I received mail recently from Morgan, Haley, Stephanie, Elder Wilcock and Alix. Thank you so much! My flow of letters has slowly ran dry but the few that trickle in really boost my spirits.

So nothing has happened on the missionary front I am sad to say. We have had to do heaps of different jobs so we have not had a lot of time to proselyte. We hope to do more this coming week.

We have just been cleaning flats, taking a washing machine here and getting a microwave over there so it doesn't sound like too much fun but I am enjoying it. We had to pick up a missionary at the airport who was coming from the Tahiti mission because he messed up his knee, so that he could get home to Brisbane the next day so we had another companion for a few hours. That was neat. But honestly, besides that I am not an exciting person. I just look at a computer screen all day making sure everyone stays within their kilometer allotments.

The Office Staff - FRONT: Elders Brough, Modlick, Cummings and Wight BACK: Elders Tou and Roesseler

With Elder Tou doing office things

With Elder Cummings, a service missionary

I did have one fun experience. So a few weeks back I made the mistake of showing the assistants and Elder Tou my magic tricks. Well, the other morning I was trying to juggle some oranges and for some reason President Simmons asks, "Are you doing a magic trick?" So the assistants tell president about my magic tricks and president asks to see them so I had to be obedient so I did and the result was I made a special appearence at the Zone Leader council, a meeting where all the zone leaders get training from President and the assistants. So after dinner I did a little magic show for them and they loved it! It was quite fun and I got another booking for the Senior Couple conference coming up so that should be fun. I do have one request. I once saw Book of Mormon playing cards and I would love to have them. I think they are called The Book of Mormon Card Game. The Tillys had them so if you could get two-three decks that would be amazing. I won't go into detail but some missionaries didn't like the fact I was using face cards. But it is all good.

I love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Elder Landon Brough