No district BBQs on P-Day this week, but some of the district did go bowling ... but we weren't sent any photos. It was a busy week for them.
They had two lots of trade-offs during the week. Elder East says that he quite enjoys doing trade-offs. On Thursday and Friday they traded off with Elder Brown and Elder Reeves. Elder East was with Elder Brown, the mission's newest trainee in their area whilst Elder Tukukino went up to Elder Reeves' area. Over the Sunday and Monday they then had trade-offs with Elder Nalesoni and his companion. Elder Nalesoni was Elder East's companion during their initial quarantine period.
Elder East says that Elder Nalesoni is a lot less reserved than when he first came into the mission field but still isn't overly confident, but that it was good to see him starting to open up more. Elder East also commented that Elder Brown is a bit of a games enthusiast and had a couple of small card games to play in the evening before bedtime - Fort and Here To Slay. Elder East is usually up for a game at any time.
They have another trade-off scheduled for the coming week (Thursday and Friday) with the Elders in the Onkaparinga Ward. He did also say they were having trade-offs with the Sister Missionaries on Monday, but I'm going to assume that he was joking.
Elder East said that they got to give a lot of service during the last week including to an elderly lady who has cancer. They spent time working in her garden with some of her friends.
Elder East commented that they are struggling with their own investigators - not many of them are progressing spiritually at this time. They did have one gentleman at Church but have some concerns about his progression and note that there are a lot of people with mental health concerns in the area.
Elder East asked if Mum knew an Elder Varcoe on her mission. She didn't, but I did. Turns out he has passed away and that his widow has remarried and is in their Ward. They had dinner with the family during the week - it's a large blended family with 8 kids. One of Elder Varcoe's sons is currently preparing to go on his mission.
Elder East and Mum talked about the study that Elder East is doing. He finished the Book of Mormon again about a month ago and has been focusing on a lot of General Conference talks - mainly President Nelson's talks, as well as bits and pieces from the Book of Mormon. He says that he's also trying to do some study around mental health too given the prevalence in the area.
Some other minor points from the discussion:
- He got a haircut again this P-Day. Fast-growing hair is a family curse.
- Mum is trying to convince Elder East for him and his companion to go and get a Santa photo together. Elder East doesn't sound too keen on the idea.
- For Christmas, Elder East would like a new short-sleeve button-up shirt or a tie. It sounds like Mum might end up getting him a Hawaiian shirt. Apparently, his preference is for a dark base but with bright colours - perhaps floral.
- Transfers are in two weeks. He would prefer to remain in his companionship and area, but if things did change, he'd like to have one of the newer missionaries as a companion rather than being the young one.
- We found out about the package that he had been working on on P-Days to send to Kendal.
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