Video Chat - 21st March 2022 - The Borders Start Opening Up

Another P Day chat with Elder East. Transfers was coming up the next day (22nd Mar) and the big news was that the borders are starting to open up. The AAM would be losing three missionaries as they proceed to their original assignments in Perth.  

There would also be three missionaries going home this transfer including his former companion Elder Nalesoni and Sister Ip. 

There were several new missionaries coming into the mission. One would be arriving on Thursday (24th Mar) and staying overnight with the APs until Friday when his trainer would be arriving. Then on Friday another missionary would be arriving. This one was coming from America although he holds an Aussie passport. He was going to be staying with the APs until Monday (28th Mar). Elder East joked that he should probably count both of the misisoanries who'd be staying with them as additional companions and trainees of his. 

A quick photo of Elders East & Ma'a eating out last week.

A few updates on events during the week:

• They went street contacting in the CBD during trade-offs with members from the City Branch on Thursday.
• On Thursday evening they had dinner and did a lesson with Sister Johansson and the Johnasson family.
• On Saturday they had an appointment with an investigator fall through. It was the same person that Elder Lekias had accompanied them to fellowship with the previous week.
• We commented about how two girls Elder East knew had both just been set apart for their missions - Utopia Kikkert and Emma Davison.
• The APs attended Firle Stake Conference over the weekend. (19th & 20th Mar.) We had Stake Conference in Canberra as well, with Elder Lekias in attendance. We were planning to catch up with him to chat about Elder East, however, we ended up being in quarantine with Covid, so didn't get the chance. We did learn whilst watching the Stake Conference broadcast that Elder Leakias and President Johansson had been mission companions serving in Christchurch together.

Elder East shared with us several photos during our chat.

Elders East and Ma'a joined Sister Bridge and her trainee, Sister Denton, to help provide some service on Saturday morning. They joined in with some members from Onkaparinga Ward that Elder East knew in helping somebody to move house. The other three missionaries apart from Sister Denton are all in the last few months of their mission and Elder East said they were joking with Sister Denton about the fact they were all going home whilst she's only starting her mission.  

There were also several photos from a District Meeting during the week. A member who runs a donut shop had provided donuts for the missionaries.

The final photo he sent us was of a waterfall and lake. The APs were doing some location scouting for a video to be made around the "Waters of Mormon" and this looks like a candidate to be used. 

Video Chat - 14th March 2022 - They Didn't Lose A Mission Car

It was only 4 days from our last chat with Elder East on the previous Thursday, so there wasn't a lot of news to share. He did share with us that Elder Ma'a's original mission call was to the Ivory Coast in Africa.

Also, earlier in the day the Zone had a farewell party for Sister Ip who was finishing her mission the following week. The APs helped with the decorations which had a "yellow" theme. 

The APs went to Firle Ward on Sunday after which they had a Mission Correlation Meeting. Elder East sent us a photo with the Travers family in Firle Ward, who are related to the Travers that we know.

Elder East also sent us a picture of Elder Rea and himself on trade-offs.

Later on Sunday the APs had a 5-hour meeting with President Johansson to go through transfers for the following week. Even though transfers are meant to be every six weeks, the pandemic is still resulting in missionaries arriving "mid-transfer" so they're really happening almost every three weeks.

Elder East noted that he only has two "full" transfers left.

Commenting on the recent conferences during Elder Nattress's visit, he said that they felt bigger than normal. The mission is growing. He doesn't really know the missionaries well outside of his zone, but he knows of everybody - that's part of the role of being AP.

Elder East also told us a funny story about the mission tour. With all of the missionaries from country areas and the NT down in Adelaide, the mission office provided some additional cars for missionaries to get around. After the tour finished and missionaries went back to their area, the office Elders advised that they were a car short. They'd given out 3 but only had 2 come back. The APs were sure that they'd gotten back the cars they'd given out. Elder East went and did a check where they stored the cars that aren't in use, and sure enough, the missing car was parked there and wasn't missing. This story was especially funny given both of Elder East's sisters have accidentally lost vehicles in the past that turned out not to be lost

Video Chat - 10th March 2022 - Elder Ma'a Is The New AP and Elder Nattress' GA Tour

 P-Day this week had been moved from Monday 7th March to Thursday 10th March due to the mission tour. Despite the extended time period, it was a relatively short chat about what had happened mission wise over the previous 10 days. 

Transfers resulted in Elder Evans being transferred up to Darwin as Zone Leader for the Newly created Alma Zone in the Northern Territory. Elder East's new companion is Elder Ma'a who was part of the group that arrived and quarantined together with Elder East back in 2020. Elder Ma'a is from Sydney. Elder East says that Elder Ma'a has had a steep learning curve with all of the AP work over the last week.

First up, the transfers on Tuesday 1st March were impacted by the Alice Springs missionaries missing their flight down to Adelaide. The next flight down they could go on was Friday 4th March. This had a flow-on effect throughout many of the other missionary companionships that were changing during transfers and caused a lot of extra work. Elder East said that the last of the "ripples" were resolved the day that we were chatting - Thursday 10th March. 

Friday 4h March featured a whole mission Leadership Council with President Johansson, with another Misisoanry Leadership Council run by Elder Brett Nattress, the General Authority from the First Quorum of the Seventy (and 1st Counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency) who was doing a mission tour. Elder East said that they spent a lot of Sunday night doing reports for Elder Nattress. The APs were also involved in leading sessions at both MLCs, covering the topics of accountability and goal setting.

Elder K. Brett Nattress

On Tuesday 8th March there was a Zone Conference and mini-MLC held. There was meant to be another MLC on Wednesday but Elder Nattress' flights were changed by the airline at the last minute.

On Wednesday 9th March Elders East and Ma'a had a lesson with a person who was referred from the Sisters in the City Branch. It turned out that it had been arranged for Elder Paul Lekias, an Area Authority that knows us and Elder East, to came along as a friendshipper to the lesson. Elder East said that it was great having Elder Lekias there and that there were times they let him lead the discussion. He was very positive and very bold.

Elder East shared with us a mission video that he was a part of that would be posted on social media later in the day. Besides introducing the video, he also speaks some lines of Samoan in the video as well. We know he'd been trying to learn some Samoan earlier in his mission, Apparently Sister Johansson helped him get his pronunciation correct and the Samoans we know reckon he did a pretty good job.

https://fb.watch/bOJZEnVRkv/

Video Chat - 28th February 2022 - Visiting Robinvale Branch

It was only a brief chat with Elder East on P Day (28th Feb).  The previous Monday they had flown back from the Northern Territory.  The following week was spent sorting out transfers and the upcoming Mission Conference. 

Elder East advised that they are changing the way they do transfers. They will no longer be announcing all of the changes beforehand, simply advising missionaries whether to get ready to be transferred or not. We asked Elder East if he was being affected by transfers but he wouldn't let us know.

He let us know that during the week he refilmed a video with Elder McCarthy about the Spirit World. Apparently there were issues with the quality of the first take. The video now has to be edited and gotten ready to put up on social media.

On Saturday morning they provided some service to a member in Firle Ward who is getting ready to move by shifting a load of bricks in their yard.

Later on Saturday they drove up to Mildura. They would be spending the rest of the weekend there to help assist with a devotional being put on by President Johansson on the Sunday evening. 

On Sunday they went to Church in Robinvale - a town about 90km east of  Mildura. Elder East said that it's meant to be an English-speaking branch, but most of the meeting was in Tongan. The one-hour Sacrament meeting also went for nearly two hours.

They had dinner with the Mildura Bishop before the devotional on Sunday evening and drove back to Adelaide on the P Day we chatted. Elder East ends up doing a lot of traveling on P Days. 

Some other quick dot points from our conversation:

• Five new missionaries are coming into the AAm during the next mid-transfer cycle. Four of them are reassignments of missionaries meant to be heading to New Zealand. There's a family friend in Sydney who's meant to be heading to New Zealand in April, however, she's currently scheduled to go to the AAM if unable to go to New Zealand. She probably doesn't know that yet though.
• There are three Missionary Leadership Councils coming up followed by a Mission Tour by Elder Nattress from the Area Presidency the following week. Consequently, P Day on the 7th March has been rescheduled to Thurs 10th March. 
• Elder East had forgotten to tell uis that he'd been able to attend the Adelaide Temple the previous week. The Mission Leadership Council had been invited to go along with the Johanssons to the temple.
• Elder East is currently thinking that he'll focus on doing a general science degree at ANU when he returns from his mission.