Video Chat - 2nd June 2021 - Transferred to Darwin!

We found out on P Day that Elder East had been transferred the previous day ... to Darwin! Don't know how accurate it is, but it's meant to be one of the longest missionary transfers in the world. When transfers were announced on Monday night, Elder East wasn't told where he was being transferred to, but he was told to pack to be ready to fly. He knew that meant a transfer to Darwin.

His new companion is Elder Evans who was born and initially raised in Perth, but who has lived in most Australian state capitals. He's spent most of his recent years in Brisbane, which is where he was called from.

Elder East announced his transfer to us by sending us the following photos.

He complained that much of the land was covered by clouds during their flight, but the photos he took of the outback were pretty good. 

Their new area is the Palmerston Branch, which is a satellite city of Darwin, about a further 20kms inland.  Besides taking in Palmerston, they cover the entire top part of the Northern Territory - extending about 700kms east-west, and in the north-south direction, about 250kms at its narrowest point and out to about 470kms at its widest. The only bit of it they don't cover is Darwin itself, which has its own missionaries.

Elder East is happy to be up in Darwin (yes, I know, technically not Darwin, but everyone refers to it as Darwin). Both he and Edler Evans are the Zone leaders for Darwin. There are currently two other Elders and two Sisters in the zone as well as a senior couple, but they will be joined by another companionship of Sisters in a couple of days. One fo the Sisters is training a greenie who is arriving a  couple of days after transfers.

We asked Elder East what his new companion was like, and he was like "You can ask him yourself, he's just over here". Elder Evans then joined in our chat for about 5 minutes. Elder Evans has already served around a year as well, having served in the San Pablo Philippines Mission. After arriving in the AAM he was "trained" by Elder Guzman (Elder East's trainer), so they joked that he and Elder East are brothers.

He lived for a month in Canberra staying with the Sandlers, a family that Elissa knew. He is into sport, and not playing Magic the Gathering (to Elder East's disappointment.) Edler east has said that they're aiming to try and be fit in Darwin, knowing that they're going to be sweating a lot in the warm weather. Elder east also wants to get back to the same weight he was when he came out on his mission (85kgs).

A few more dot points of things we discussed:

• He's interested in going to Kakadu National Park, but it's probably too far away (about 240kms.)
• He wants to see crocodiles while in the NT. There is a crocodile tourist park not far away (Crocodylus Park.) They might be able to go there.
• Missionaries aren't allowed to go near beaches in the NT because of the threat of crocodiles.
• Elder East was wearing the West Coast Eagles face mask during his transfer flight. I gave it to him on my way back from Perth. I'd gotten it in Perth as a gift from Don & Tamara. Don & Tamara have since left Perth for an extended holiday and are currently travelling and exploring the northwest of WA. They are planning to go to Darwin, so will try catching up with Elder East.
• Elder Evans is Elder East's twelfth missionary companion ... and he still hasn't reached his twelve-month mark yet.
• Elissa is getting ready to send a "12-month" package to Elder East.
• Seth and one of the new Sister missionaries recognised each other, but couldn't pick where from. They worked out they were in the same group during the 2020 FSY in Sydney. 
• The hymn they were singing in the transfer day photos was "Hope of Israel."