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.