Arriver Training Photos - 12th & 13th May 2021

 The AAM Blog has put up some photos of the missionary intake from the 12th May. This includes the Arrival Dinner ion the evening of the 12th May, and the Arriver Training on the 13th May. As a joint trainer of Elder Davey with Elder Brown, there are obviously several photos of Elder East. 

I've done the usual search and download from the blog so that you the reader can play along with "Find Elder East!".

The first three photos are from the Arriver's Dinner, whilst the second lot of three photos are from the Arrviers Training day.

Video Chat - 19th May 2021 - Going to the Temple For the Second Time

My connection during our video chat last P-Day kept dropping out, so I didn’t get to hear all of what was said, and as usual at the moment, it wasn’t an overly long call. The bad connection was due to us chatting earlier than our normal call time, so I was trying to connect whilst at work. The reason for the earlier call was that a number of the AAM missionaries, including Elder East, were getting the chance to go through the Adelaide Temple during the afternoon. It was going to be only the second time that Elder East will have been through the temple, so it was exciting for him. The fact that he was going to be going through with four of his previous missionary companions was an added bonus. Elissa mentioned that she was teaching about consecration in Seminary that week, and that consecration includes the consecration of ourselves and our time. She compared it to Elder East’s preparation and service as a missionary and in the temple.

Elder East mentioned that he enjoyed the Canberra Youth Fireside that he’d been asked to participate in via Zoom on Sunday evening. Besides the opportunity to speak to the Canberran youth, he also enjoyed catching up with the other Canberran missionaries at the end of the fireside.

Elder East spoke about how the number of the missionaries in the AAM didn’t seem to increase, even with the new intake of missionaries. Two Sisters had unexpectedly gone home for health reasons, with both being reassigned to serve in their home missions. Another Elder had gone home several weeks ago as well. He still had some time left on his mission, but had struggled to adjust with the reassignment from serving in his original mission in Africa, and serving back here in Australia. Elder East thinks that the Elder is regretting his choice to return home as he has called on P-Days to talk with some of the missionaries still serving in the AAM.

Some minor dot points:

• Elder East says it was cool to catch up with Elder Reeves when he stayed with them overnight during the new missionary intake. He says that Elder Reeves has injured his back though which is a concern for him at the moment.
• Elder East now thinks that he’ll continue to train Elder Davey, even if their three-way companionship is broken up at transfers.
• He said that he enjoyed catching up with me at the airport on Monday.

Adelaide Airport Lunch with Dad - 17th May 2021

I emailed President Marquis prior to recently going over to Western Australia, requesting:

President Marquis,

I will be flying between Perth and Canberra on Monday 17th May and will have a 4.5hr stopover in Adelaide between 11:30am and 4pm. 

Would it be possible for me to catch up with Elder East and his companions and to take them to a short lunch (assuming he is still in Adelaide post the 12th May missionary intake)?

I understand if it’s not allowed, but thought I would ask and see if it was possible. 

Thanks for all you are doing for Elder East and the other missionaries,

President Marquis responded back:

Thank you for reaching out. I’m sure a short “reunion” at the airport would be a boost to Elder East. If he does not feel it would be a distraction, I’m happy to have him meet you at the airport. There are restaurants in the airport terminal and there is also one just off the main baggage claim area in the Atura Hotel which is connected to the airport. I’ll leave it to you to talk with him about this and to coordinate the details. I do not know yet whether he will be impacted by the transfer next week but it is the case that even if he were, he’d still be serving in Adelaide as all our outlying areas are currently closed except Darwin and I do not anticipate any changes in Darwin on 12 May.

Sister Marquis and I love Elder East and are grateful to you and Sister East for raising up such a valiant and noble son. He is a true blessing to the AAM.

Following the approval from President Marquis, we arranged to meet up at the airport at noon on Monday 17th May.

I arrived at Adelaide Airport from Perth about 11:30am on the Monday morning, and received a message from Elder East just after noon that they had arrived. We quickly found each other and I was introduced to his two companions - Elder Brown, and his new trainee, Elder Davey from Rockhampton in Queensland.

I treated all three to a lunch of gourmet salads from Soul Origin at the Airport and we spent our time chatting. Whilst in Perth I had grabbed a bunch of Magic The Gathering booster packs as a gift for Elder East. I know that he often plays the game with other missionaries during their spare time on P Days. He was quite happy with what I'd bought him.

It was great seeing Elder East. He looks like he's lost some of the weight that he'd put on - he is trying to be conscious of his health. More importantly, he carried the Spirit with him and he sounded and acted like somebody who has been set apart as one representing the Saviour Jesus Christ and who is there to serve others.

It was great to spend time seeing him again after 11 months. It was only an hour of time spent with him and his companions, but it was an awesome time to treasure until we see him in person again in mid-2022.

Canberra Stake Youth Fireside - 16th May 2021

Canberra Stake arranged for a missionary-themed youth fireside on the evening of Sunday 16th May. They invited a number of currently serving missionaries from the Stake to join in a Q&A with the Canberran youth. Elder East was able to join in, along with Elder Stiles and Sister Malu who are also serving from Canberra in the AAM, and Sister Abel and Elder Vakalahi who were serving from his home ward.

Elissa joined Jewel in going to the fireside so she could see Elder East

I am told that Elder East spoke well to the questions he was asked, with some of his [paraphrased] responses being:

• Q: What is the hardest thing about your mission?  A: Friends you develop who start to learn about the Gospel but who are unwilling to repent or make the commitment to follow the Saviour
• Q: What has surprised you the most?  A: That he doesn't miss home. (Apparently there was a lot of laughter and looks at Elissa after he made that comment to see how she'd react, but as we always comment, we've raised him to be independent and go on a mission. We're glad he's enjoying his mission and isn't homesick.)
• Q: What was the worst food you've eaten? A: Some of his companion's cooking.
• Q: What was a spiritual highlight he's had? A: Receiving the prompting to leave his Sunday class and to go outside to discover that their investigator's husband was outside. 

Video Chat(s) - 12th May 2021- Training, Transfers & Grandparents

P-Day was punctuated by three short video chats with Elder East as his big news was that he was going to be training a new missionary from the mid-cycle intake coming in that day.  He didn't have any details of the new missionary, but he would still be in a three-way companionship in Onkaparinga Ward. He would still be staying with Elder Brown as Zone Leaders whilst they trained the greenie together. Elder Cooke was being transferred out to another area.

Because of transfers, he wouldn't get long to chat with us. I also didn't get any screenshots during the calls and didn't get any photos from Elder East, so this is a pictureless update.

When he did call, he hadn't been chatting long when there was somebody banging on the window wanting help. He said he'd try calling Elissa again later but didn't get a chance to.

A few other items that were mentioned:

• Elder Reeves was being transferred down from Darwin and would be staying with them overnight.
• Elder East is wanting to get a new jacket to wear with non-proselyting clothes. He says that his trench coat is fine when he's in missionary gear, but no good if exercising, P Days, service activities, etc.
• President Marquis had granted permission for Elder East and his companions to come out to see me during my four hour stopover at the Adelaide Airport the following Monday.
• Elder East had also been given permission to participate in the Canberra Stake Youth Fireside the following Sunday evening.

Elder East had two quick video calls with his grandparents - one with Grandad and one with Nanny during the afternoon. Adam was currently with his parents down in Albany. They were only short calls but they were both happy to see him and told him how proud they were of him.

Video Chat - 5th May 2021 - King Benjamin Is Inspiring

 Not a long chat this week, so only some quick notes:

• We chatted about what inspired Elder East this week, and he talked about Mosiah 3:13 in his cripture study  he feels particularly relevant to the missioanry work that he's doing. 

13 And the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of men, to declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them.

It's a quote from King Benjamin, who also happens to eb one of my favoruite prophets from the Book of Mormon. We spen time talking a bit about all of the various things that we find inspiring.

• He's getting on well with his companions, a bit too well he says. They have to make sure that they don't get distracted. Elder East says that he seems to act as the senior companion, tsakaing the elad on most things.
• Elder East says that member work is starting to grow. They do have a regualr meal with a family in the ward every Tuesday evening.
• They have a number of investigators still at the moment - Danielle, Shane and rachael. They taught five enw people last week as well, but even thoguht they're alll interetsed, they haven't been able to follow up with them for follow up treaching appointments yet.
• Elissa had been preparing an escape room activity for one of her upcoming Seminary lessons. It features a time-traveling Elder East. She'd sent a copy of it through to Elder East to read ... but he hadn't looked at it yet ...

• They haven't taken over the Christie's Beach area that was vacated by the Sister Misisoanries as they were expecting to do. President Marquis has advised that there are plans to open the area back up again with Sisters, so it's not worth merging the information for the two araes togetehr to then have to split them again not long afetrwards.
• One of Elder East's old companions Elder Tukukino has gone home early.
• They had District Council the previous day and Elder Stiles from Canberra was responsible for running it as the current District Leader. 
• I told him that I'd receievd permission from his President Marquis to take him and his companion(s) to lunch during my Adelaide stopover on my flight back from Perth. His response was "the adelaide airport's a bit far." [shrug] Hew as also disappointed to hear that President marquis had said that Elder East will still be in Adelaide after the mid-transfer missioanry intake. Elder East doesn't think he'll ever get to serve outside of Adelaide despite the size of the mission.
• This week was a "nice cat week". He got to meet a lot of "Nice cats".

Video Chat - 28th April 2021 - ANZAC Day and Birthday Surprises

Elder East started off our weekly video chat by letting us know that he had another companion – Elder Cooke. He was now in a three-way companionship. Their companionship got the call at 6:40am on Tuesday morning to be at the chapel by 9:30am for their scheduled interviews with President Marquis … and to pick up their new companion. Elder East thinks that their three-way companionship will only last for a couple of weeks as there are a bunch of new missionaries scheduled to arrive on May 12th.

Elder Cooke is from Brisbane (like most in the AAM) who came out into the mission in January. Elder East describes Elder Cooke as being a “White Poly” who is into games. In fact, Elder East reckons that he himself is the least "nerdy" member of their three-way companionship - funny noting that he is a self-confessed geek/nerd. 

A summary of the week:

On Thursday of last week they received an invite to Saturday dinner from the Mahina family in the ward.  When they got to the dinner on Saturday evening, Elder East was greeted with a surprise birthday combination of Star Wars and Lego 

On Saturday night, after the dinner, Elder East prepped all the ingredients for “Dad’s chilli recipe” ready for his birthday dinner on Sunday.

Sunday was also ANZAC Day, so they were up at 4:00am, left the flat at 4:40am and went to the Onkaparinga Memorial Gardens for the local ANZAC Day Dawn Service. I had organised tickets for them earlier in the week and emailed them through to Elder East after confirmation that they were allowed to attend.  They said that the service didn’t actually start til 5:50am, so they got there too early. Elder East says the service was good. He reckons that there were probably over 500 in attendance, and they did see some other members there at the service. 

Elder East cooked up the chilli in the morning after returning from the Dawn Service.

At church that day the Sacrament Meeting had a missionary theme, so Elder East was one of the speakers. His topic was “Feed My Sheep”. He said that he talked about how they were all there at Church because we have some level of love for the Saviour. Also, that one of the ways we can show love for others I to be friendly, smile and similar in our actions. 

Elder East mentioned that they took on teaching lady that the Sister Missionaries had started teaching.  She came along to Church on Sunday along with her husband and son. 

Whilst at Church the Ellis family called the Elders into the kitchen. There they had a birthday cake and treats for Elder East - it also happened to be the birthday of their twin children. 

Elder East said that they got to teach a lesson in the afternoon, and then for dinner got to have the chilli that Elder East had cooked earlier.  He says that it was OK, but it tasted like a “normal” chilli, and not like Dad’s chilli.

Elder East says that he got spoilt with presents for his birthday. He had previously received a package from us and from the Reeves before his birthday. He said that the mission couple happened to come by on the day as well, and he received a package from Grandma, as well as his mobile phone case that I’d ordered for him

Amongst the photos Elder East sent us, he included these photos, but I'm not sure of the stories behind them. Noting who is in each picture, I'm presuming that the photo with all three elders in it would've been taken on Tuesday 27th April, with the other being taken earlier in the week.

A couple of final dot points from the week:

• They visited a member's home on Monday night and she decided that she was doing a  personality test on the Elders. She reckoned that Elder East was "officious, logical and would make a good Stake President." He's not sure what he thinks of that assessment.
• Elder East has lost 3kgs in weight - down from 96kgs to 93kgs. They're trying hard to be healthy.