We got to have a longer chat with Elder East this week. He had just come from performing some service with other missionaries from the district. They helped an investigator to paint his living room and hallway. It was somebody that Elder East had already met when he was in his first area. He'd described him back on the 23rd Sep that "... he was like an atheist version of [Dad] - knowledgeable but stubborn."
Elder East shared with us about the previous P-Day when they had Elder Lwin's "just-in-case" farewell. They played volleyball down at the chapel, followed by a game of ten pin bowling. Elder East said he didn't play too bad. He says that the next transfers is on Monday 25th Jan. Given his history of being transferred at every transfer Elder East said he hasn't bothered unpacking since having to pack for Elder Lwin's "almost going home" the previous week.
The next transfer is expected to be small, but both Elder Lwin and Elder Rogers are due to go home so there will need to be some changes. He thinks that Elder Reeves will become a Zone Leader. Elder East has met the two new missionaries (Stiles & Cook) that came into the AAM mid-transfer and caused Elder East's transfer to Gulfview Heights with Elder Lwin. He met Elder Stiles who is also from Canberra but says that he doesn't recognise him at all from his pre-mission days. The other new Elder, Elder Cook plays Magic The Gathering. They were going to have a game together on P-Day, but their painting service project ended up taking longer than expected and they didn't have time to play.
On Tuesday they had a mini-exchange with the APs. Elder East spent his time with Elder Rogers. They spent some time on Elder East's contacting skills. The missionaries are now allowed to do street contacting and pretty much everything except tracting. They previously hadn't been allowed to do contacting in public due to coronavirus restrictions, so it's a skill Elder East hasn't been able to use yet. He said that they had a KFC dinner in a park and then went out just talking to people around them. Elder East said that Elder Rogers had implied that Elder East should prepare himself to serve in leadership capacities.
Elder East was asked to give a 10-minute talk at Church the previous Sunday. He was only asked on the Saturday morning to do so. He talked about how the Book of Mormon can bring us closer to Christ, and how it helps to correct false traditions.
Elder East spoke about some of the members they'd been with over the last two weeks:
- There was a Brother Steven Pearce who was originally from WA who recognised Elder East's name and worked out that he was my son. I didn't recognise the name, but Elissa did. She said to ask him if he remembered the Yates family.
- They've only just had their first missionary correlation meeting with the Ward Mission Leader. Apparently, he's not too keen on meetings.
- They had a meal with the Pressler family who also gave them some bags of American treats. On finding out that Elder East likes L&P they also got him a can of L&P as well.
- They had a meal with the Relief Society President. She warned them that her husband has dementia and can be a bit difficult and argumentative. Apparently the husband told Elder Lwin that he needed to teach Elder East how to tie a windsor knot for his tie. Elder East then said that the husband needed to get his wife to teach him how to come along to church. The family gave them a lot of left-over food which helped them with a couple of meals.
- They had another family in the ward give them two bags of "good quality" groceries, which they were obviously happy to receive.
Some other dot point notes from our discussion:
- Elder East has had problems with an ingrown toenail in the past, and he's starting to have problems with it again. He says he also needs new shows - both church shoes and runners. Unsure if his shoes are causing his ingrown toenail.
- The new Mission President for the AAM who will take over from President Marquis in July has been announced., His name is Adolf J. Johansson and he's from Tonga, but has spent a lot of time in Fiji as an Area Authority. We think he may actually have visited and spoken at a Stake Conference in Canberra several years ago.
- A talk Elder East enjoyed from his study recently was President Henry B Eyring's talk "Walk With Me".
- They're currently only teaching two investigators. Elder Lwin has been teaching one of them for a long time as Elder Lwin first met him when this was his first area in the mission.
- Elder East said that it's hard for Elder Lwin to stay focused at the moment with the uncertainty around his departure.
- Elder Lwin is doing the cooking most nights, but it's mainly because he tends to get hungrier earlier than Elder East does.
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