Video Chat - 5th October 2020 - Twelfth Cousins and Inspirational Packages

 P-Day was held on Monday this week as the rest of the week was booked out for mission conference activities. Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita, the second counselor in the Area Presidency would be joining the mission throughout the week (albeit remotely by Zoom from Auckland due to Covid) for sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.  He would also be joining a missionary companionship for their companionship study, a district for their district meeting as well as joining in to help teach an investigator. I think Elder East is a bit nervous that he'll be chosen for one of these.

One advantage of the P-Day moving to Monday was that it was a public holiday in Canberra, so we were all home, as well as having Kendal Reeves staying with us as well. Kendal and Jewel had spent the long weekend together, roller-skating,  doing touristy stuff, and having fun. Elder East was able to thank Kendal in person for the package she'd sent to him. A box full of inspirational quotes with chocolates and other small treats. He brought one along with him for the video chat and was trying to guess what treat it had inside. (It was Skittles :)) He sent us this photo of the package in the evening.

One of the first bits of news that Elder East was happy to announce was that he and Elder Aiho, one of the other missionaries in the district, are related. FamilySearch has a feature where you can find other Familysearch users nearby who are related to you. It turns out that Elder Aiho, who is from French Polynesia, and Elder East are twelfth cousins. They share common ancestors from back in the 17th Century. Elder East pointed out that all of the Samoans in the mission had done this and discovered that they were all related - no big surprise there.

We got a rundown of the shortened week since our last P-Day chat. On Thursday they had District Council, although the APs and Sisters had to Zoom in to the meeting. On Saturday they helped the missionaries in Fulham Gardens to move out of and clean their flat. Elder East suspects that Sisters are about to move into that flat. 

At Church on Sunday the Prospect Ward Bishopric were released and a new Bishopric called. Considering that the current Stake Presidency is also being released at Stake Conference in 2 weeks, there's certainly a lot of change in leadership going on for the members of Prospect Ward at the moment. There were only 47 in attendance on Sunday. The Elders had the opportunity to accompany a member to provide the sacrament to an elderly sister after Church.

Both the old and new Bishop have said they plan to have the missionaries over to their homes. The old Bishop has a son who turned 8 during the lockdown and is planning on getting the missionaries to teach him to help prepare for his baptism. Given the very sparse opportunities to go to member's homes so far on his mission, hopefully, they will get to work with the members soon.

Elder Kennach poked his head into the chat at one point. We asked Elder East to tell us a bit more about his companion. He'd mentioned before about how Elder Kennach is an artist. Elder Kennach likes drawing and is interested in doing design after his mission. He came to his mission straight from high school, and last Sunday was his 8 month mark on his mission. Although he's from Samoa, he has family in both Samoa and New Zealand, although many of them aren't active at Church. Elder Kennach's father passed away several years ago. He's now the "last Samoan" in the AAM after the rest were repatriated the previous week. Elder East that prior to that, Samoan was the second language of the mission, and he'd picked up a few words of it.

Some quick notes re investigators:

• They're trying to work with Edward, a long term investigator in the area to come along to Church.
• They had an Indian man pretend to be a Hindu, but in reality was a Christian just pretending so that he could then try and argue with the missionaries.
• The 17-year-old girl who's been coming to Church is having family problems. Her parents are separated and her Dad doesn't want her to get baptised, but she's continuing to come along and is going to Young Women's as well.
• They taught an investigator (Tarui?) last P-day afternoon. They've had another appointment with him since then. He's enthusiastic and the Elders are hoping to see him at least twice per week.

Some other dot point notes from the chat:

• Both Elder Beaumont-Tahu and Sister Hatch are from Queensland and were taught their missionary preparation lessons by John Larkin - the former Canberran Stake President who taught Elder East some of his missionary preparation lessons in 2019.
• We spoke about how there had recently been some obedience issues with some missionaries in other areas of the mission. Some missionaries are obviously struggling with the limitations caused by the pandemic.
• Elder East reckons Adelaide has a drinking problem - he reckons that there are lots of drive-thru liquor stores everywhere.
• He's getting more used to driving again, but he still doesn't like the Adelaide roads. They're too busy for him.
• He was having a bad hair day - it was "obeying gravity" for a change.
• The Elders now have a key to their chapel.
• He was heading off later today to go to the SA Electoral Commission in the city so that he could cast an absentee vote for the upcoming ACT election.
• Elder East is doing a lot of cooking - with dishes such as a mango chicken curry with naan bread on Saturday night and gourmet sausages with grilled onion & capsicum another night.