Photos from Quarantine - Bread Nachos & Scrambled Brains

Elder East uploaded some photos to our shared drive today. Because it's P-day we also got a chance to have a video chat with him and he explained them to us. Again, we're expecting an email with more detail from him but will add some notes about the photos and other things we discussed.

Life continues on with the AAM-MTC whilst they are in quarantine. As they're in quarantine, they have had a senior missionary couple drop groceries off to them when they first arrived. The first photo is of a "feast" they cooked up last Sunday night. They're not used to managing a kitchen and discovered that the chicken wings they were going to cook had gone off, and the 3 kgs of chicken breasts they had were only good for another day. Consequently they had a large cook-up on the Sunday night - chicken stroganoff (cooked by Elder East), chow mein, potato salad and mash potato.

They must have managed to make short work of all the food, as Monday night's dinner was Elder East's Nacho Bread™. His secret recipe involves bread, oil, taco seasoning and cheese ...

On Tuesday the Elders had to go and get Covid-19 tests as a part of their quarantine procedures. Knowing that I'd gone through the procedure, Elder East messaged me briefly on Monday about what the procedure involved. I said two tests, one involving sticking a long cotton bud to get a swab from the back of your throat, and one to get deep inside your nose. I said that the one inside the nose is the one that tends to cause the most discomfort.

I messaged Elissa to let her know about the impending test. Elissa must have messaged Elder Reeves' mum as he apparently got a message from her 5 minutes later saying "Enjoy getting your brains scrambled' in relation to the nose swab.

Elder East said it was a long process to get tested. A 40-minute drive to the venue, a one and a half hour wait to be seen, waiting for all to get their tests done and then the 40-minute drive back. Hopefully, they all come back negative. We were sent a photo of Elders East and Reeves waiting for their tests.

We're still waiting for our weekly email to arrive ...

Elder East - The Cookie Version

Sister Reeves' mum, Kathy, and Elissa have been communicating a lot since they realised both of their sons would be heading into the AAM together. Kathy sent through photos of the following cookies she had made last week and which she was sending through to Elder Reeves in Adelaide. She's obviously very talented.

We reckon they're all awesome, but of course, the Elder East cookie is our favourite :)

President Marquis' Welcome Letter

We received the following email from President Marquis, the AAM Mission President yesterday.

Dear Family of Elder East:

We have welcomed Elder Seth East to the Australia Adelaide Mission.  Sister Marquis and I are mindful of the great trust you have placed in us by sharing your son with us.  When he arrived, we met him at the airport, and he was taken to a flat close to the mission office to begin his 14-day quarantine as outlined by South Australia law.

Elder East’s companion is Elder Nalesoni from Australia.  We are including a picture of Elder East with President and Sister Marquis in front of the Mission Office.

The newly arrived missionaries are in daily contact with President Marquis and our senior couples, who are serving them both spiritually and temporally.  They are participating in training and mission meetings.
  
Sister Marquis regularly posts pictures and updates of the Australia Adelaide Mission in the “Blog” and “Photo Gallery” section of our personal website at MARQUISAUSTRALIAMISSION.COM.   

For the Australia Adelaide Mission, preparation day is on Wednesday. In keeping with the Missionary Department Communicating with Families policy change announced in February 2019:

“Missionaries are authorized to communicate with their families each week on preparation day via text messages, online messaging, phone calls, and video chat in addition to letters and emails. 

If a missionary’s parents live in different locations, the missionary may contact each parent separately. It is not expected that missionaries will call or video chat with their parents every week. 

Missionaries should initiate all text message conversations, online messaging, phone calls, and video chats. If a family needs to contact the missionary directly, they should contact the mission president first. 

When communicating with their families, missionaries should be wise in considering the duration of the phone calls and video chats. In making these decisions, they should be considerate of their companions and keep in mind the purpose of their service. 

Missionaries should choose cost-effective methods of communication so they can stay within their monthly budgets.”

We invite you to be mindful of the direction from the Brethren in helping your missionary be wise in considering the frequency and duration of phone calls and video chats home. 

For clarity, missionaries should use email on preparation day to contact other friends and family members, including siblings not living with their parents.

Please note that all mail should be sent to:  

Australia Adelaide Mission Office
Elder Seth East
PO Box 97
Marden SA 5070 Australia

We are excited to have Elder East be an important part of the great Australia Adelaide Mission. We look forward to this wonderful group of missionaries making many positive contributions to our mission as a whole and to the members and friends who they will be working with in the coming days. We know the Lord blesses, in many special ways, our missionaries and their families. As your missionary is obedient and serves faithfully, you will find that to be very true. Your faith, prayers and support are greatly appreciated.

Warmest Regards,

President Derek Marquis
AUSTRALIA ADELAIDE MISSION

Elder Reeves Thinks Elder East Is a Legend

Elder Reeves' Mum sent Elder East's Mum the following funny snippet from Elder Reeves' weekly email this week.

Looks like Elder East is going to have to work on his Samoan, Tongan and Maori.

The First Video Chat - 22nd July 2020

Elder East took the opportunity of video chatting with us during his first P Day (Wed 22nd July).

Here are a few dot points that provide some additional information to his weekly email.

• Their flat is a three-bedroom ground floor unit in the suburb of Klemzig. They all sleep in one room, and the other two rooms are done up for studying.
• The other new missionaries believe that the AAM Mission President is stricter with the rules than in some other missions.
• They've been busy undertaking the AAM MTC that the mission had set out for them. They have two Zoom Meetings per day - one with the Mission President & his wife, whilst the second one has had different people each time. 
• They got the chance to hold their own Sacrament meeting last Sunday.
• As a part of the AAM MTC, each of the missionaries will have to give three talks over the two week period.
• Seth is looking forward to trying to cook chicken stroganoff - his flat does have a slow cooker :) He helped one fo the other missionaries cook home-made hamburgers & chips over the weekend
• The three Polynesian Elders in the flat cover the three major Polynesian peoples - Elder Roberts is Maori, Elder Ma'a is Samoan and his companion Elder Nalesoni is Tongan.  
• There are apparently some Mandarin-speaking wards in Adelaide, so there's a chance he could end up serving in a language ward.
• He accidentally left his sneakers at home, but we've since mailed them to him (along with some treats.) He hadn't received them as of yet.

He did also text us later in the day for advice as he'd managed to burn his thumb and it was quite painful.

The First Email Home - 22nd July 2020

Hello East Family,

My flight was really good, nice and short only about 2 hours and I just looked out the window for most of it. I did have an exit row seat so I may have fallen asleep for a small bit.

When I arrived I had to get screened by the police which was a bit intimidating but they were all chill so it was all good in the end.

Quarantine isn't too bad.  We're all sharing one room and the other rooms are turned into studying and class rooms. We're all getting along really well, I'll talk about the Elders later. The flat is also really good. We didn't get central heating fixed until Tuesday but we've had plenty of space heaters to keep us warm. We probably won't have flats this nice in the field.

Food is pretty good. So far we've all taken turns cooking and everything's been edible so far. We had a lot of essentials stocked for us when we got there and we got a delivery Sunday with a lot more items (including hot chocolate which I was going through withdrawals for). We actually do have a slow cooker so I'm seeing if our ingredients list gets approved so I can make a chicken stroganoff.

There are five Elders in total. My companion is Elder Nalosoni, he's the big fellow in the pictures. He's pretty quiet in general but we've had some great moments during companionship study. He was originally called to the Philippines.

I can say this about all the Elders, we're all pretty funny guys with a great sense of humor. The other elders are in a tripanionship, there is Elder Reeves who is Kendall's brother. He's got a lot of missionary friends and a lot of experience. He was originally called to the Sendai (Tokyo North) Mission in Japan. Elder Roberts is the longest-serving of the Elders as he was called to Samoa and served there for two months before coming back home. He is also the district leader. Elder Ma'a is the final Elder, he was called to the Ivory Coast.

I am the youngest by age and calling date. I am the only Elder actually called to Adelaide and I am also the only Elder not endowed. Apparently, I'm one of the first missionaries in a while who has actually been called to Adelaide.

The MTC experience here has been amazing and so much better than the online MTC. We've got stuff to do from 8am to 9pm and it's all organised with breaks so that it all works really well.
It definitely makes up for the lost time in the NZ MTC.

Love, Elder East

Elder East Arrives Safely in Adelaide

Elder East has safely arrived in the Australia Adelaide Mission. The mission president's blog was updated with photos of their arrival last night. Elder East was the last of five new missionaries that arrived that day. The other four were all from NSW and arrived on the same flight earlier in the day.

It looks like that the five Elders will be serving their 14 day quarantine period in the same accommodation, and will be undertaking missionary training that they're calling the AAM-MTC during their quarantine. They held their first meeting via Zoom on that first evening.

Elder East Departs For the Mission Field!

Having only got confirmation on Wednesday afternoon that he was leaving on the Friday, Thursday was a day of packing and getting ready. President Stuart coming by on the Thursday night to set apart Seth again. We arranged to dial in Adam's parents via phone and Elissa's parents via Skype to listen in to the setting apart.

We've got some notes about what was said in the setting apart, but we'll post them up later on.

On Friday morning we went out and did some last-minute shopping for things he needed, including getting a suit bag in place of a second suitcase.

At Elder East's request, we grabbed Butter Chicken wraps from Desi Aroma in the South.Point food court as his last pre-mission meal. Due to the pandemic restrictions in place we had to bring them back home to eat though.

Around the shopping and lunch, Seth was doing last-minute preparations such as setting his phone up with the missionary SOE as well as doing some last-minute online courses.

Then there were a few last-minute photos (and farewells to the cats) before we left for the airport at 3pm. (He won't be happy with me putting up the photo of him and Minori due to the funny face he's pulling ...)

Then it was a matter of checking in his bags and waiting to board at 4pm. We were surprised at how many people were still at the airport and traveling. A lot less than usual, but a lot more than expected.

When it was time to go, there weren't any tears, but there were hugs, and Elder East was finally on his way. We waved to him as he crossed the airbridge to the plane, and stayed until his plane took off.

As we left the airport and went home we followed his flight online until he safely landed in Adelaide at 6:03pm Canberra time. We look forward to seeing his photo go up on the "Arriver's Section" of the AAM blog.

17th July 2020 - It's A Date!

We've just gotten the word. Seth will be flying out of Canberra directly to Adelaide on Friday afternoon. His friend Hamish in Sydney will also be flying into the Mission on Friday afternoon

Seth will be set apart on Thursday night, to once again become Elder East.