Missionary Leadership Council - 20th February 2021- Great Feedback

Elder East had said that he was going to be attending his first-ever Missionary Leadership Council on Saturday (20th Feb). The AAM blog has updated with a post and photos of the MLC. The MLC had Elder Paul N. Lekias, Area Seventy, and Sister Rebecca Lekias in attendance. 

We know the Lekias' as they're from Perth and from the same generation as us - just a little bit older.

Elissa received the following message from Rebecca Lekias on Sunday evening.

"Elissa, Paul and I have been in Adelaide this weekend for multiple church meetings and one of them was with the Adelaide missionaries serving in leadership positions.  It was such a lovely surprise to see Elder East, he is looking great and was a stand out in his participation and discussion at mission leadership council. You must be so proud of him 😊 it’s so lovely to see friends children growing up in the gospel and staying strong. Love to you and the family 💕💕"

Elissa responded: 

"Thank you so much.  We are so proud of him.  I had told him if he ever had Pres and Sister Lekias visit he had to say Hi. Did he? ... He is enjoying being a zone leader and I know he was really looking forward to the mission leader training. Thank you for giving me that feedback."

Rebecca responded: 

"I don’t think he remembered but that’s all fine.  What a small world in the church, I just love it ❤️ he is going to make a fabulous Zone Leader, he did say it was his first MLC but we sure couldn’t tell, he was like a seasoned leader 😊"

There were a couple fo additional photos on the AAM blog of the MLC that included Elder East.

Elder East's Mission Grandmother

Elissa got a message from Mary Sandelin-McCann. Mary was Elissa's trainer on her mission. The message advised: "I am listening to your son speak in Onkaparinga chapel. Lol" Elissa asked for a photo together if possible. We received the following.

Mary lives on Kangaroo Island but just happened to be in the ward whilst Sethw as speaking in Sacrament. Elissa commented to Mary "You do realise as my mission mum, he is your grandson."

Video Chat - 17th February 2021 - Elder East 479 Days, Elder Taua 479 Hours, Speeding Fine $490

Elder East had an accomplishment in the last week. There was a mini-transfer due to one of the APs finishing his mission and going home. Elder East didn't get transferred as a consequence ... is this the first transfer of any type where he hasn't ended up being transferred?

The previous District Leader and his companion in Elder East's zone were transferred out, with Elder Brown becoming the new District Leader. Consequently Elder East went to have trade-offs with Elder Brown to help train him in his new role. This had the added benefit of Elder East going to a meal appointment with the Wilsons - a family that both Elissa and I knew on our missions. [This has been written up as a separate post.] Elder East commented that Brother Wilson was called as the 1st Counsellor in the Bishopric only two days later. Elder East also commented that Elder Brown has only ever been on trade-offs twice - both times with Elder East. During the trade-offs, they also went and shared a lot of other messages with members in Mount Barker. Elder East said that the only meeting  they had with an investigator didn't go too well although he didn't say why, 

Elder East says that he'll have more trade-offs in the coming weeks with the other companionships in the zone. He'll have a short trade-off with the APs in Firle tomorrow (Thurs 18th Feb) as Elder Taua will be having his "farewell" temple session.

Elder Taua only has 20 days left on his mission - in fact, Elder East had worked out at one point during the day that Elder Taua had 479 hours left whilst Elder East had 479 days left. Elder East is hoping to stay in the area at next transfers when Elder Taua goes home. They currently have three investigators with dates for baptism. One of their investigators had two cousins come down from Port Augusta.  The investigator has been enthusiastic about sharing the gospel with them, and one of the cousins has started being taught and accepted the invitation to be baptised. Elder East wants to stay to help all of them towards baptism.

Elder East will be attending his first Mission Leadership Council on Saturday (20th Feb) Whilst the MLC should be good, it's held in Firle which is an hour trip away, so will be their second drive to Firle this week. They have a kilometre limit they're meant to keep under with their car, but are finding it difficult and have already exceeded their monthly allowance.

On the topic of cars, Elder East says that it looks like he was picked up speeding by a speed camera. It was a 60 km/h limit where it had just decreased from 100km/h. He says that he was decelerating but hadn't done so quickly enough and was still at 70km/h. Apparently, it's about a $490 fine. Ouch. 

Some more dot points from the chat:

• Most of the Adeliade chapels seem to have full-sized cultural halls which fit a full basketball court in, as opposed to the half-court size that he's used to.
• He commented that he learned that there's a lot more he needs to do as a Zone Leader to help and serve others. I commented that it's like that it any Church calling - it's just that the circle of people your serving and helping changes according to your calling.
• Onkaparinga Ward has a sports night on Friday nights - mainly basketball. There are a lot of youth in attendance, as well as a recent convert. The missionaries usually go and join in.
• Elder East got a package from his friend Kendal. I've written that up as a separate post. He says that he should've paid attention to the "Fragile" sticker on the box!

Elder East Gets a 14th February Package

Elder East just so happened to get sent a package from one of his friends for the 14th of February. It wasn't a Valentine's package - as that might distract him - it was a "friendship" package. :)

When he got the package, he shook it and it sounded like there was Lego in there. He shook it more to try and tell what it was. He opened it up to discover it did contain Lego ... but it also contained a bunch of handmade cookies that he had accidentally broken by his shaking of the box.

Fortunately, we happened to get sent some photos of what the cookies looked like before they were sent to him.

Visiting The Wilsons In Mount Barker

Both Elissa and I served in the Orange Branch in New South Wales during our missions, about three years apart. Elissa has kept in contact with one of the families from Orange Branch - the Wilsons. They are now living in Mount Barker, a small city of about 16,000 people on the outskirts of Adelaide. 

Elder East ended up having trade-offs with Elder Brown in Mt Barker on Friday 12th Feb, and they happened to have a dinner appointment with the Wilsons. The Wilsons enjoyed having Elder East over and briefly Skyped us whilst he was there so that we could say hi. We were at the Garland's place at the time so they all got to say hello as well. We also got sent several photos from the evening. 

Sister Wilson said that Elder East was lovely and seemed to be a good missionary. She said that he gave a good message to them and that Elder Brown seemed to be "hanging on Elder East's every word." She thinks that Elder East looked confident and seemed to be enjoying himself.

Video Chat - 10th February 2021 - Unfortunate Car / Gate Interface

Elder East seemed to be happy and to have had another positive week. They attended a multi-stake fireside on Sunday evening and had two of their investigators come along for the evening. The first one was the young lady who was recently scheduled for baptism. Elder East said that they found out that her mother turns out to be a less-active member of the Church. The other investigator who came along was somebody who they weren't actually teaching at the time. Not sure if that will change now.

The AAM blog had a write-up about the fireside which included a few photos with Elder East in them, so let's play "Where's Elder East?"

Edler East says that he's enjoying being a Zone Leader. He is enjoying helping people and wants to get better in his service. Their companionship had training with the APs on "Model Exchanges" during the week. This was to help Elder East as a new Zone Leader to learn how to be more effective when doing exchanges with other companionships. There are plans for him to exchange with all of the other companionships in the Zone in the coming week. 

He mentioned that the APs said that missionaries shouldn't have pictures of girlfriends/boyfriends up in their flats. Elder East thinks this was in response to him having a picture of Kendal up on his study desk.

One of the APs, Elder Rogers was due to go home on Friday - it was out of cycle so that he would be able to start at university. We briefly chatted with Elder East about his post-mission plans. We know that it's still a long way away, and don't want to distract him from his mission focus, but just wondered if he's had any inspiration whilst out. Elder East says that he's feeling less certain about heading down the sciences path as careers in science tend to be more limited than other areas.

Elder East says that it's setting in that Elder Taua is heading home in less than 4 weeks. Elder Taua's had to deal with arranging his travel home as well as details for his final Temple visit on top of giving a "farewell" testimony at Zone Conference. Elder Taua joked that they're trying to make him trunky.

After almost leaving last month Elder Lwin is not on the list of missionaries going home next transfer. Given the issues around getting a flight back to Myanmar and the military coup in the country his ability to get home is becoming even further uncertain. Elder East says that missionaries are joking that if the Myanmar problems continue, Elder Lwin will beat Elder Batar's record of being out for nearly 29 months.

Elder East commented that Elder Kennach's companion has gone home for medical reasons, so he's been put in a three-way companionship with Elder Nalesoni and Elder Aiho. That means three of Elder East's old companions are now all serving together.  We joked that they're all probably comparing notes about what it was like being his companion.

Some additional dot points about things we discussed:

• Even though the Adelaide temple has reopened, it's unlikely missionaries will get the opportunity to go except for this arriving or going home. They are working on trying to get recent converts to attend the temple though.
• They're not getting many member meals in the ward.; They did get a roast meal with an investigator family whose children they are currently teaching.
• The ward has a lot of missionary things in place - a ward mission leader, missionary correlation, and so on, but he'd like to see things a little less administrative and a bit more spiritually focussed.
• He's currently studying 3rd Nephi in his personal studies.
• Elder East has started putting on a lot of weight. He and Elder Taua are eating a lot of takeaway/junk food.
• Elder East managed to scratch the side of their car down a gate as they were leaving their ward missionary correlation meeting.
• Elder East has always had to put up with us complaining before his mission that his smiles never looked natural. We talked about some of the "photo faces" that certain missionaries always seem to have in mission photos.  Sister Matenga always seems to have a smirk/lopsided smile. Sister Anderson always has her eyes shut. Elder Nalesoni always looks serious and like he's frowning. Elder East did point out that he does actually have one photo of Elder Naelsoni smiling :)

Zone Conference Photos - 29th January 2021

 The AAM Blog put up a post about the Adelaide Area Zone Conference held on the 29th January. As always, I've taken the liberty of extracting the photos of Elder East that were included as a part of the blog.

The AAM Blog captioned these photos with "Elder East and Elder Taua do a special training and object lesson for the 42 Doctrinal Principles from Preach My Gospel."

A few photos of Elder East during the lunch break.

The following photos are from the "Higher & Holier" presentations they did when they broke up into Zone specific workshops after lunch. Being the Zone Leader for Marion Zone, that was 

And of course, the obligatory conference photos. First, all of the missionaries from Adelaide at the conference, and then one just of Marion Zone.

Video Chat - 03rd February 2021 - Groundhog Day & Smashed Cakes

We got a message from Elder East on Thursday night, asking when Groundhog Day was - he was having a good day and didn't want to end. I don't think he realised the coincidence that it was actually Groundhog Day (2nd Feb) that very same day.

We found out the following day as to why he'd enjoyed the previous day.  He was particularly happy about a good District Council meeting they'd held and that one of their investigators had committed to being baptised. They were having a video lesson with their investigator and invited her to be baptised. She said yes, and has set a date for Easter Sunday. That's still a way off, but Elder East is excited to help her prepare. 

He said that District Council involved him doing some teaching on using goal setting as a tool, as well as recapping what was discussed during Adelaide Area Zone Conference the previous Friday. Zone Conference consisted of a general session of training, and then a break-out session for each individual zone.

Elder East and Taua gave a presentation during the general session. He explained it was a type of scripture chase, with lolly rewards for those who got the scriptures first. On the last scripture chase, the reward was a mud cake ... except Elder Taua mashed up the cake when giving it to the winning Elder. They then used this as an analogy "Sometimes as a missionary we can mash the cake when trying to teach the gospel" after which they talked about clarity in teaching. During the breakout session, they focused on being "Higher and Holier" - being better and getting rid of distractions from the work such as gossip/drama/practical jokes. Elder East says that President Marquis has changed some of the mission rules to try and support this aim of becoming "Higher and Holier".

The Adelaide Mission had 7 baptisms in January, and two of those were in Onkaparinga Ward. One was taught by the Sisters, whilst the other is the one that Elder East taught during trade-offs. 

Elder East says that Onkaparinga Ward isn't a big ward, but they've already had a proper Ward Missionary Correlation meeting and were scheduled to do things for the rest of the week. The ward has sports nights on Friday nights for members and investigators so they will usually be there on Friday evenings.

We chatted about a few things that were happening out in the wider world too:

• There has been a military coup in Myanmar, which made us wonder as to how that would impact Elder Lwin's return home.
• Western Australia had gone into lockdown because of a case of community transmission of Covid.
• There was also an out of control bushfire in Western Australia threatening the suburb where we used to live.
• We'd also come home that day to discover a dead bird in our bedroom thanks to Minori the cat.