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.
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