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.