Video Chat - 20th September 2021 - Trade-offs In Alice Springs

Our weekly video chat with Elder East was delayed as the Elders were still in Alice Springs on trade-offs for P Day. President Johansson, who had joined the Elders in Alice Springs, had decided to have the Elders stay the day and spend P Day with him as they toured some of the nearby tourist sights around Alice. 

It had been a busy week for them. On Tuesday and Wednesday they'd crammed in as many lessons and catchups with people as possible, knowing they'd be away for the rest of the week. 

They spent Wednesday night in the old Sister Missionary's flat in Darwin as they had to be up by 4AM on Thursday to get out to the airport for a 6AM flight. It was a 2 hour flight. Elder East said that they got to see the sunrise over Alice Springs as they arrived which was pretty. 

On Thursday Elder East was on trade-offs with Elder Beaumont-Tafua who had previously served with in Onkaparinga Ward. On Friday he spent the day with Elder Maher. President Johansson flew in on the Friday morning and spent some time talking with Elders East and Maher at the missionary's flat after arriving. Elder East mentioned that his favourite event during thre trade-offs was a lesson he taught with Elder Maher to a family on the Friday where they helped teach their 9YO daughter about the Gospel. They also had dinner with President Johansson on the Friday night.

He said that they did a lot of member work as Alice Springs is a reasonable-sized branch.  The branch is mainly made up of Polynesian and American members and there are a lot of part-member families. The members of the branch are excited at having missionaries back in the branch.

On Saturday he said that they got a free lunch at a canteen at the local netball stadium that is run by members of the branch. Elder East and Elder Roberts went out tracting together on the Saturday. They invited several people to Church and were able to get a couple of return appointments for the Alice Springs missionaries.

On Sunday President Johnasson was the main speaker in the branch Sacrament meeting and then took a combined second-hour class. They then all joined in with the missionary preparation class during the afternoon. On the Sunday evening there was a large get-together of about 8 member families (over 30 people)  and all of the missionaries for dinner. The missionaries shared a small lesson/message at the get together.

On the Monday P Day, President Johansson had been contemplating whether to try and take the Elders out to Uluru, but it's a 10-11 hour round trip, so they ended up visiting some locations closer to town. They went out to the West MacDonnell National Park and visited Standley Chasm and Simpson's Gap. On the drive out to the National Park they encountered a Thorny Devil on the road that had to shoo off.  Elder East bought himself a cap from the visitor's centre so that he didn't get sunburnt during the day. He enjoyed the visit and commented that Standley Chasm reminded him of The Narrows in Zion National Park. After the sightseeing, the Elders then had an activity going ten pin bowling back in town. Elders East and Roberts would then be flying back to Darwin on Tuesday morning (21st Sep.)

Besides helping out the Alice Springs missionaries and providing training, part of the purpose of the trade-offs was to assess if Alce Springs has sufficient work for additional missionaries to be assigned to the branch. Elder East noted that President Johansson is opening up and focussing on some areas that haven't had much missionary contact in a while. It's possible that Adrwin may be receiving more missionaries in the future.

Some other dot point notes from our chat:

• They have a lunch appointment with Elder East's Uncle Ross scheduled for Tuesday (21st Sep) as he's currently visiting Darwin. 
• Elder East is due to have his second Covid vaccination on Thursday (23rd Sep).
• There was talk about whether to maybe have a future Zone Conference held in Alice Springs.
• President asked Elder East if he'd like to train. Elder East commented that technically he was a trainer of Elder Davey, although it was a three-way companionship and Elder East was transferred out after only 3 weeks. Elder east reckons that training in Alce Springs would be great. 
• They already have a busy week scheduled ahead of them for when they get back to Darwin.
• Elders East and Roberts are thinking of buying and splitting up a Magic the Gathering card collection from one of the people they know in Palmerston.

Video Chat - 13th September 2021 - Missionary Cane Toad Removal Service

The preceding week was a quiet but good week according to Elder East. They are still teaching a lot. He says that they are actually spending very little in the way of time doing finding as most of their time is taken up following up with people and teaching lessons. They were happy that a less-active member of the Church that they had been visiting came along to Church on Sunday. 

They all also provided a bit of service during the week - getting rid of another two cane toads. The first was at the same house as the last caen toad they got rid of. The second was at the same place where a snake came out of the garage whilst they were etaching. They removed one of the cane toads as it had killed a dog with its poison, whilst they removed the second one as a four-year-old child was about to try playing with it. Unfortunately, no photos of their cane toad extractions. We joked that at least we know what Elder East is going to do with his life after his mission - move to the NT and become a cane toad exterminator. 

With all of the recent discussions about trips to remote areas, Elder East advised that it looked like they weren't going to get out to Gove or Katherine. They were however going to be flying down to Alice Springs on Thursday morning (16th Sep) to have trade-offs with the missionaries there. They would be staying there over the weekend and flying back to Darwin on the following Monday morning (20th Sep).  President Johansson and the APs would be flying up from Adelaide to join them as well. Elder East was looking forward to seeing Alice Springs. He likes the idea of being able to try and work in remote regional towns.

Other dot points from our discussion included:

• The temperature hasn't gotten below 20° over the last 4 months that he's been in Darwin. Elder East reckons he prefers the cold weather, as you can look/dress nicer in cold weather.
• Elder East finished studying the Book of Mormon again, and has started back into 1st Nephi over the past week. 
• Elder East had bought himself new shoes and clothes during the last week. He's hoping that they'll last until the end of his mission.
• Elder East mentioned that they'd caught up with a member from Gove when he was in Darwin during the week, but we forgot to ask him about the details. 
• His Great Uncle Ross was going to be visiting Darwin during the week and was planning to try and take him out to dinner. Elder East wasn't sure if he'd be able to meet up with him though. Because of the trip to Alce Springs, they'd already tried to fill up Tuesday and Wednesday by seeing everybody they'd normally see during the week. 
• Four trainees were coming into the mission during the week. As a result, the missionary who has cut Elder East's hair whilst he's been in Darwin was transferred down to Adelaide. Much to Elder East's relief, however, the only other missionary who he'd let cut his hair was transferred up from Adelaide to Darwin to take the other Elder's place. 
• Elder East got into a joking argument with his sister Jewel about the family car he used to drive, which Jewel now drives. The car's upholstery was updated earlier in the year with a cowhide print material. Elder East joked that he wanted his toy dinosaurs that sit on the dashboard removed from the car so that they can have some dignity. 

Video Chat - 6th September 2021 - Finally Meeting President Johansson and Talking About Remote Areas

Elder East let us know that they'd received a surprise call from the mission office the previous Tuesday morning (31st Aug) letting them know that Zone Conference had been moved to Wednesday and that President Johansson and the APs were getting ready to fly up to Darwin now. This resulted in a busy couple of hours getting everything ready for the next couple of days such as getting an extra mattress for their flat.  

They had lunch with Pres Johansson at which point Elder East realised he was the last missionary to have met him in person, now two months after he'd been in the mission. Elder East described President Johansson as "cool, laid back, and funny."

Elders East and Roberts would spend the rest of the day and Wednesday on trade-offs with the APs. They had the Zone Conference (just the NT missionaries) on the Wednesday, with Elder East conducting the Conference. Other highlights of the several days included the missionaries being allowed to get together for a Chinese dinner on the Tuesday night, interviews with President and a district activity going bowling.  

Elder East said that his interview with President was primarily all about the work in the surrounding areas, especially the outlying regions. It looks like President is going to get them to try and work more with the remote members. 

• Elders East and Roberts are likely to be flown down to Alice Springs in a week to go on trade-offs with the missionaries and members down there. 
• They were fortunate to have the active member from Katherine in attendance at Church in Palmerston last Sunday, so they finally have contact details for them. This will assist with the potential trip to Katherine that President has also been encouraging them to undertake.
• The main active member family that is in Kununurra, the Kajma family, looks like that they're moving back down to Perth, so the Elders are unlikely to get out to Kununurra
• There's also the possibility they might get flown out to Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula. It's over 1000kms from Darwin - an 11-hour drive, so flights are being investigated by the mission. There are several members out in Nhulunbuy, one of whom is scheduled to be in Darwin during the coming week, so they will be catching up with him on Tuesday night. One of them had posted on Facebook about how'd they'd discovered another member family there when they asked about their son's name at daycare. 

Several other dot point items from our chat about the past week:

• They've had a busy week teaching lessons to people in their area.
• The Elders have been volunteered into the Branch choir, with choir practice after Church each Sunday.
• Elder East is starting to get a lot of mosquito bites as the weather starts to get a bit more humid.
• Elder East thinks this will be his last transfer in Darwin, and that he'll transfer back down to SA at the next transfer.
• He has worn out another pair of casual shoes so bought himself another pair of cheap sneakers to try and last him for the rest of his mission. His sneakers get used during service projects and sports nights as well as just on P-Days.
• Several missionaries have commented that Elder East looks to have lost weight since they last saw him or saw pictures of him in the Liahona. He has been more conscious of being healthier, so he's happy that it's noticeable to others. 
• We were able to share with Elder East about how Grandad Yates was able to baptise a lady who was inspired to join the church from the example that Grandma had set when they were all friends many years ago when living up in the North West. Sister Abel from Elder East's home ward happened to be one of the missionaries who helped teach the lady.
• Elder East showed us the spreadsheet he maintains of when the various missionaries in the mission arrive and are due to leave.

Video Chat - 30th August 2021 - Darwin Cracker Night and Combined Branch Trivia Night

Elder East told us a bit more about his new companion, Elder Roberts, who is "cool.". He's from Sydney with a Maori background. His home area has been heavily hit by Covid. Elder Roberts likes playing basketball and also has a particular affinity with a racing arcade game, but hasn't found it yet in Palmerston. Much to Elder East's relief, Elder Roberts knows how to play MTG :)

The previous evening was "Cracker Night" in the NT, with Elder East commenting that there were a number of people letting off fireworks in the surrounding streets and another 2 or 3 groups in open space areas. He said that they went down to a jetty on a nearby river that has views of Darwin. they were hoping to catch some views of some larger public displays being put on in Darwin.  There happened to be a family and young kids that were setting off fireworks down there as well. The fireworks were meant to finish by 11pm, but Elder East said that they went late into the night.

Elder East sent us a bunch of short videos of the fireworks. I joined 4 of them together that feature slow-mo shots he took, and the other is at normal speed.

With the Sisters being transferred out of their Branch, the Elders had a busy week this past week. They were following up on a lot of the people who the Sisters had been teaching or helping and had a lot of teaching appointments. At one point they had 8 lessons scheduled for a single day. (Three ended up not occurring, but they still taught 5 lessons in a day.) Elder East says that they've met lots of cool and crazy ("nice crazy") people. 

The Elders took part in a combined activity night on Friday that was put on by the two Darwin branches - a trivia night.  They were on a table with some of the kids from the branches. Early on in the evening, they were coming first. However, the answers were being done via an online tool which started lagging for them after a while and their answers weren't registering. 

They haven't progressed their plans to go down to Katherine for a weekend yet. It will probably need to wait until things quiet down a bit. They did have a member from Katherine join the recent online broadcasts, but that member's contact details aren't available in the ward list.

President has let the Elders know that he may fly them down to Alice Springs to be able to do trade-offs with the missionaries that recently transferred in there. They are also considering flying the NT missionaries down for the Christmas Conference in December, borders allowing.

The Elders have a busy week ahead:

• Assisting with the Missionary Preparation class being held on Sunday nights;
• They are now participating in Branch Council meetings held on Thursday evenings.
• Zone Conference was scheduled for the coming Friday (3rd Sep). Zone Conferences were now going to be held separately rather than jointly, so it would just be the NT missionaries in the Zone Conference. President Johansson was planning to fly up for Zone Conference (border restrictions allowing.) This will be Elder East's first chance to meet him in person.
• There is a Disability Convention coming up that they will be helping at.

Some other minor dot point trivia from Elder East during the discussion:

• He was trying out new wireless headphones for the call - they weren't very good sound wise
• He has a spreadsheet where he keeps track of those missioanries coming into and leaving the mission.
• He is trying to practice some of his piano playing - he played High On The Mountain Top for us. He's a bit rusty, but we could recognise the tune.
• I let him know to expect a possible package during the week - I told him it was a half-eaten chocolate bar.