Video Chat - 16th December 2021 - Post Mildura Visit

It was a delayed video chat this week as P Day had been moved from Monday to Thursday due to mission events. It was also a relatively quick chat. Even P days are busy for the Assistants. 

Elder East focused on letting us know about his and Elder Evans's trip to Mildura the previous weekend (Fri 10th - Sun 12th Dec.) He said that the trip was really great. President Johansson decided that he wasn't going to go up as originally planned, however, the Elders felt impressed that they should still go.

They left Adelaide at 9am on the Friday morning and then drove up to Berri where they had lunch. They then headed over the border into Victoria. They said that there wasn't anybody manning the border - a big change from the recent hard border restrictions during the pandemic. 

They went and turned up at the home of Naomi, a recent convert they've been teaching online. She was surprised to see them. She'd been told that they were no longer coming up when President Johansson had canceled his travel for the weekend. She was pleasantly surprised to see them and be taught in person during the afternoon. 

On Friday afternoon they ended up teaching an investigator and pastors from her Fijian church that were holding a prayer group. They had dinner with the group and were able to teach about the restoration of the gospel which Elder East said went well. 

On Saturday they did some flat inspections of missionary flats that were not currently in use. They were checking to see what needed to be done if the areas were reopened. Elder East was surprised to find a box of Magic the Gathering cards in one of the flats. It was part of various items left behind by missionaries when the pandemic started and the foreign missionaries all departed back to their home countries.

Later in the day they were invited to join in the missionary homecoming of Sister Halalova, who was returning from her mission. She'd finished her mission in Elder East's home ward. Elder East said that the homecoming was all done in Tongan.

On Sunday they attended Mildura Ward. Elder east said that it's only a small Ward - probably not more than 40 people in attendance. The Sacrament program included a testimony from Naomi, a talk from Elder Evans, and a homecoming talk from Sister Halalova. They headed back to Adelaide on Sunday afternoon after Church.

The rest of the week had involved lots of Missionary Coordination Meetings with the various Stakes and arranging of travel. The Mission would be having its Christmas conference the following day (Friday 17th Dec), so they were arranging travel down to Adelaide for the missionaries in the Northern Territory. What was making things difficult is that the pandemic-related border restrictions were being changed. There was concern if they brought the Northern Territory missionaries down to Adelaide, would they then have to quarantine for 2 weeks before being allowed back into the NT.

We spoke briefly about some mission announcements of people from back home. Arie Wolff - one of the YSA from back in Canberra had just announced his call to the AAM. Emma Davison, a family friend has received her call to Auckland.

Come Unto Christ in Adelaide - "Traditional vs Biblical" Christmas Video

Elder East took part in the shooting of a Christmas video for the Australia Adelaide Mission which was posted back on the 14th of December. 

Video Chat - 6th December 2021 - Meeting Elder Gard from WA

It was only a quick video chat last P day as they were involved in picking up a new trainee who had just flown in a couple of hours earlier. It turned out that the trainee was Elder Guard, from Bunbury Wa. We know the Guard family well. Elder Guard's auntie Kylie was his Mum's best friend at Church as a teenager. I on the other hand once went on a date with his other auntie, Donna. We also both knew his dad, Jared. Elder Guard is going to be trained by Elder Rea in Port Pirie. We were all surprised about how Elder Rea is so new yet is already training. Elder East says that Elder Rea will be good though.

A quick rundown of the last week:

Tuesday was the last of the recent Zone Conferences. Elder East said that the conference went well.

Wednesday involved participating remotely in a District Council, as well as being able to teach a lesson to a lady named Naomi.

Thurs involved President Johansson, the APs, and the Sister Training Leaders spending the day (11am-8pm) planning out the calendar for 2022. This included events such as conferences and other mission events and activities. Elder East says that President Johansson shouted them lunch and dinner throughout the day. Elder East noted that they've been eating a lot of fast food lately, mainly either for convenience whilst rushing around, or because they're in a large group of people being fed (eg conferences.)

Friday - they got to teach a lesson to an investigator in Broken Hill. We're presuming it was done remotely :)

 Saturday - they helped out with the Marion Stake activity "A Night in Bethlehem".

Sunday - they attended church in the City Branch. Elder East said it was good to see some old friends from when he was serving there.

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• The AAM has 9 missionaries waiting to go to New Zealand missions when the borders open. There are apparently 9 missionaries in New Zealand also waiting to go to the AMM.
• Elder East says that it's uncommon for them as APs not to see President Johansson each day. They have met his family, but haven't seen them very much.
• The AAM has a tradition of a member who wons a property out in Murray Bridge having all of the missionaries over for Christmas each year. It's likely that it may be limited to just a single Zone this year. 
• The mission is having a Christmas Zone Conference next week, and so P-Day is being moved from Mon (13th Dec) to Thurs (16th Dec).
• He commented that he had to get some Minties for Christmas - he associates Minties with Christmas. This is probably because we normally don't buy them, but several times Jewel won Christmas trees made out of Minties at school fetes when they were younger.
• Elder East received the Christmas decorations and Nativity set that we'd sent to him. He'd hung up the Missionary Christmas stocking that had been made for him by Kathy Reeves. He was also enjoying the Dice Advent calendar that we'd sent through to him as well.

Video Chat - 29th November 2021 - Training During Zone Conferences

 Another busy week for Elder East. We got to speak to him early on P Day and he gave us a run down of his past week.

Tuesday of last week was the Firle Zone Conference which Darwin also joined in via Zoom. The plan was for Elder Evans and himself to start off the training after which President Johansson would then take the remainder of the session. President Johansson ended up having to take a phone call though leaving them to do all of the training. The topic was Teaching with Power & Authority. Elder East said that it went well. 

Wednesday was spent contacting and talking with remote Ward & Branch Councils throughout the mission as well as getting to teach a lesson with a recent convert.

Thursday was the Modbury Zone Conference where they once again were involved in training and teaching with the missionaries in the Zone. Elders Brown & Rea (his old companion and his last trainee) were called as the new Zone Leaders for the Zone on Thursday after Zone Conference.

Missionary Leadership Council was held on Friday where they worked with the Elders and Sisters in leadership roles. The MLC also included involvement with the Pacific Area Social media Council which was a Zoom meeting chaired by leaders in Salt Lake City. Elder East commented that he saw Sister Page, serving in Stromlo Ward during the meeting. He said that he also got chatting with Sister Malu, another missionary from Canberra, about things back at home.

Later on Friday, they got to return and visit the recent convert again that they taught on Tuesday and got to spend another time teaching her, but also with her kids this time as well. 

Saturday was spent helping to move missionaries around as a result of some more companionship changes.

On Sunday they attended Church at Firle Ward. They had the opportunity to bless the sacrament as many of the youth were away.

Elder East says that the coming week should be less hectic. They have one more Zone Conference, to do which will happen on Tuesday (30th Nov), whilst Thursday is a planning day. They have to help President Johansson plan out the mission calendar for 2022.

Two of Elder East's previous companions headed home this week, Elder Kennach and Elder Cooke. Elder Kennach was having to do a long trek to get home, Flying Adelaide to Perth to Dubai to Auckland. All up they have seven missionaries heading home in the near future and only two trainees coming in.

A few other notes from our discussion:

• Elder East is getting a South Australian driver's licence. Because the mission covers areas in SA, NT, VIC, NSW and WA they have to cross borders reasonably frequently, and having a local licence will make things easier during Covid times.
• In doing this he checked how many demerit points he has. because he's still only a P plater, the two fines he's received means he only has a single demerit point left. he says that he's been driving extra cautiously.
• He commented that he received the Dice Advent Calendar that we sent him, but is yet to receive the Christmas decorations that Elissa has sent to him.
• One of the enws sitser missioanries is a "D&D geek". He'll appreciate having somebody to geek out with.
• He mentioned that he has had a lot of members try and joke about his surname during his mission  ... but he's heard them all several times over by now.
• Elder East has been focusing on journal writing recently. He hasn't written much in his journal up to now but does have three notebooks of notes from meetings, conferences, spiritual thoughts and impressions he's received and so on.