Video Call - 30th May 2022 - Time to Start Packing & The Hero's Journey

With only two weeks to go until Elder East comes home, the P Day call this week was a very jovial one, with lots of family banter and joking. It was a long and happy chat.

On Tuesday of the previous week was the mid-cycle transfer and Elder Nelson joined Elders East and Ma'a in a three-way companionship to learn the ropes as an AP in the AAM. Unfortunately, Elder Nelson came down sick during the week. Elder Ma'a ended up in a  trade-off with another missionary for most of the week whilst Elder East stayed with Elder Nelson. Elder East describes Elder Nelson as cool, and a bit of a crackup. That's good to hear as Elder East had always sounded a bit cautious about what the American missionaries would be like when they eventually came into the AAM.

On Wednesday President Johansson flew up to Sydney for Mission President's Training with Elder Brent H Nielson from the Presidency of the Seventy. All of the Australian missionaries joined in a broadcast with Elder Nielson on the Thursday morning. The meeting was an 8am start for the Adelaide missionaries. Elder East said that he pitied the Perth missionaries who would have had the meeting start at 6am their time. 

Elders East & Ma'a flew up to Alice Springs on Friday for a baptismal service on Saturday (28th May) before flying back on Sunday morning. The service contained both the baptism of a new member as well as a rebaptism of a previous member of the Church. 

Elder East has an affinity for his time in Darwin and the Northern Territory - he considers it a part of his "Hero's Journey". He sees himself as being immature prior to his time in Darwin, having his awakening in Darwin, and then continuing on as a changed/transformed missionary. 

Source: Hero’s Journey Editable Diagram for PowerPoint by SlideModel.com

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• Two new Zones were created during the week. One currently doesn't have any Zone leaders, so the APs are assisting there. Elder East has started his sorting and packing for his return home.
• There was a late change as a part of transfers about using one of the flats which caused a bunch of unintended consequences - eg a district with just Sisters - that caused some logistical issues that needed to be fixed up during the week.
• We joked that we needed to make him up a list of important or interesting things to check out that occurred during his mission, much like people did for Captain America in the Avengers movies.

• Jewel isn't looking forward to Elder East coming home ... it means she has to keep their bathroom clean. :)
• Elder East is interested in getting us to order a computer for him for his return back home.
• Elder East reckons that he's reached the point of being ready to come home. He loves the missionary work itself but not all of the issues and headaches associated with helping to look after the missionaries that takes him away from doing missionary work.