Time for another update from the weekly video chat with Elder East.
Reflecting on his opportunity to go through the Temple on the previous P Day he said that it was a good experience, but he couldn't help shake the impression that his focus should be "out there" (ie doing missionary work), rather than "in here" (ie doing Temple work.)
They had Zone Conference the previous day. Elder East joked that the Marquis' are trunky, or at least ready to go home after their three years of service. Their personal effects have already been shipped home and they're currently living out of suitcases in a hotel. They have three grandchildren that they haven't met yet, and another one due soon.
The focus for Zone Conference was on teaching skills. This included remote training from Elder Bednar on talking about Gospel principles. They also broke into Zones for individual Zone training, which for Marion Zone meant training from Elder East. He mentioned that he didn't get to socialise that much during Zoen Conference compared to normal due to his training preparation, as well as focusing on chatting to several missionaries and a senior couple who were due to go home the following week.
He said that there was a surprise announcement during the last 15 minutes of the conference that they're going to be allowed to start tracting again. (ie door knocking.) Elder East is excited as this is another opportunity to be able to find people willing to hear the gospel. He's missing the fact that his Zone Leader and training responsibilities have reduced his opportunities to find people to teach.
The previous weekend they had Stake Conference and were happy to have one of their investigators at Stake Conference one of the members had helped bring him along. The Stake President had met them and their investigator before the meeting started and made a special effort of acknowledging the missionaries serving in the stake.
The regularly scheduled transfers are due to occur on Monday (31st May). Elder East reckons he wouldn't mind a change, as he's now been in the ward for over 4 months. At the same time, he'd be disappointed to miss seeing those whom they're teaching progress in the gospel.
A few final dot points from our discussion:
- He asked us if we had any MoTab music that he could have. It's one of the things they're allowed to listen to, and he didn't take any with him.
- They were going to be heading off to get a sewing needle later that afternoon. A member had offered to fix his bag that had broken, but they needed a stronger sewing needle to do so.
- They had a lesson scheduled to teach that evening as well as for each of the next three days.
- All three members of the companionship are doing cooking. They've learnt to buy frozen vegetables as fresh ones tend to get forgotten and go off.
- Edler Brown and Edler East are having to adjust to having different training styles.
- Elder East has been out on his mission for 349 days ...
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