Chat - 17th March 2021 - Area Photo Collages

Elder East advised that they were having a district P Day activity this week so we wouldn't get a call, but he did share a bunch of photos and chat with us instead. He said that "We send a collage most nights to our zone chat with our daily highlights", so these were his most recent images.

Other dot points from our text chat:

• He is in need of a case for his phone for both protection and to try and keep it clean. Following a few suggestions he decided he liked this one, so I've ordered one for him.

• He wasn't aware of the photos of himself on the Church's news article about the service they provided. His comment was that "I look fat ... Gotta work out more"
• He was needing to go and pay the speeding fine that he received a little while ago. We said that we would put some money into his account towards it, which he was very thankful for. I said not to expect it in the future but that "It's good to be able to have somebody who can pay the price for our sins 🙂 [It's an] object lesson you can use 🙂". He understood the analogy I was making to how the Saviour's atonement works.
• Elder East confirmed that Sister Malu - a sister missionary who just arrived into the mission from Canberra - was sent to Darwin for her first area. 
• They have Stake Missionary Correlation scheduled for Thursday (18th Mar), which will be the first one that Elder East has been to. He thinks that there might be a Zone Conference scheduled for this week as well.
• Elder East has heard once from Elder Taua since he went home, and Elder Taua also participates in a  messenger chat that the missionaries have.
• When we asked as to how his investigators were going he expressed some frustration/sadness saying "We can get them like 50% of the way [towards baptism] then something comes up...". I empathised, advising " Getting them through all of the discussions and to the baptism itself is always a major accomplishment.  Satan is working on them just as hard as you are, and he gets more help."
• I mentioned that I will be flying to see his grandparents in WA in May and have a 4½ hour stopover in Adelaide. I advised that if he's still in Adelaide after the next transfer, I'll discuss with the mission office as to whether I can take him and his companion out to lunch.
• He says that he and his new companion are getting along really well. I asked him that, noting his hyphenated English/Polynesian name, is Elder Beaumont-Tafua more Polynesian or more palagi or half-and-half? Elder East said that "He's white as heck" but that he tries to be more Samoan because his original mission calling was to Samoa. :)

Elder East got in trouble from his Mum during the evening. She saw the following photo on the "Missionary Mommas" Facebook group that she's a member of. 

Elder East had asked his Mum to make an apron for him, but it appears he then left it behind in one of his old flats and it is now being used by other Elders.