Video Chat - 25th April 2022 - Elder East Gets Covid and Gets Choc-Mint Ice Cream

It was a sick Elder East that spoke to us on the ANZAC Day public holiday P-Day. He had been confirmed as having Covid and was in isolation in Darwin. He had a sore throat and was congested but hadn't been hit too harshly by it.

Being a public holiday we had both Jayde and Jewel join us in the chat as well so that everybody could chat with him. 

He gave us a rundown of events over the preceding week.

On the previous Monday (18th April) they were still in their split companionships awaiting for the trainers of the new missionaries to come out of isolation (one had Covid and the other was a household contact). On the Monday night Elder East and Jian went to a Family Home Evening being held by the City Branch for the YSA and students in the branch. It was a good opportunity for Elder Jian to start getting to know those in the Branch and for Elder East to catch up with people from when he served there.

On the Tuesday the second trainer also came down with Covid, meaning that the greenies would need to remain with the APs for the rest of the week. He said that this meant that they were doing a lot more in the way of study and administration with the new Elders, as well as follow-up calls and tracting.

On the Wednesday they had several meetings - a District Council for Firle as well as a Technology Council. Elder East says that they were able to handover the running of the Facebook group for the missionary's families to the Social Media missionaries. After their meetings, they went and provided some service to a member who is getting ready to move to Africa, as well as getting haircuts.

On the Thursday, Elders East & Ma'a flew up with President Johansson to Darwin, leaving their greenies with other missionaries back in Adelaide. There was a get-together for the NT-based missionaries after which the APs traded off with the Alice Springs missionaries and went tracting in Darwin. 

On Friday they had the Zone Conference for the NT-based missionaries. The APs were meant to provide some training at the conference, however, President Johansson went longer than planned with his training, so they ended up not doing their session. On the Friday evening there was a sports night at the chapel being run by the local Church members that the missionaries joined in with.

On the Friday evening Elder East noticed that he was getting a sniffly nose, but he put it down to having been inside in air conditioning the whole day.

On the Saturday, President Johansson arranged for a number of people to go down together to visit with members in Katherine. There is a branch of the church at Katherine, but the members there are mostly less active. President Johansson hired a Kia Carnival and drove down with the APs, the Zone Leaders, and a senior missionary couple based in Darwin. 

It was a 6-hour round trip so besides looking at giant termite mounds by the roadside they broke the driving up with some stops. They stopped at the Adelaide River War Cemetary which contains graves of those killed by Japanese bombings in World War II. Whilst in Katherine itself they also had a look at the Katherine Hot Springs - one of the tourist spots in the area. 

Whilst visiting with the members Elder East highlighted their experience with one of them. The person was desirous of having the sacrament but hadn't had the opportunity to do so for a number of years. President Johansson gave the OK for the missionaries to conduct a short sacrament service with them even though it was a Saturday. 

They drove back to Darwin in the afternoon/evening, with President Johansson shouting the APs to dinner at a seafood buffet restaurant that night. By this time Elder East was starting to feel sick. President Johansson had had a cold earlier in the week and Elder East presumed that he'd caught President's cold which was making him feel sick. 

By Sunday morning Elder Easts' throat was really sore and he undertook a RAT test.

The positive result meant that all of the NT missionaries were now required to isolate themselves as contacts. The APs were in the Palmerston flat with Elder Evans and his companion.  

We managed to have quite a long chat with Elder East. There was a lot of banter and discussion with his sisters. Jayde ubered him some ice cream for his sore throat whilst we were talking. She said she made sure it was a flavour that he liked which the other missionaries probably wouldn't like - choc-mint.

The coming week was going to be difficult in isolation. The Elders would try and do as much as they could remotely when feeling better, but it was all about recuperating and recovering.

Video Chat - 26th August 2020 - Morialta Falls Hike

For P-Day the district (and the Grants) went on a hike to Morialta Falls in the Morialta Conservation Park. This is the same Conservation area that President Marquis took the Elders to when they finished quarantine. Elder East said that they took a different, longer hiking route this time. Part of the highlight of the hike was having an echidna crossing a river towards them.

Elder East is scheduled to go through the Adelaide Temple on the evening of Wednesday 2nd September. He had his Temple Recommend interview with President Marquis last Sunday which he quite enjoyed. He was encouraged and reassured by President Marquis of Elder East's worthiness and preparation to go through the temple. Elder East thinks that there will be 2 other Elders and possibly 1 or 2 Sisters going through the Temple at the same time. One of them was an Elder in his online MTC, but he was in a different district and Elder East didn't know him very well.

Their escape room activity at Adelaide Adventure Rooms on P-Day last week was fun. The scenario was that it was a jailbreak, with them handcuffed to a bench in different cells. They managed to finish with about 15 minutes to go. Elder East said that Elder De Guzman was really good at picking locks which helped them in the first part of the challenge.  Elder East was able to show off his geographical knowledge in the puzzle in the last part of the challenge. It involved trying to match postcards and plane tickets to locations throughout the world. Elder East would have been a natural at that, and the other missionaries were apparently impressed.

Elder East is getting a bit tired of the same old wraps he was making for meals and has bought some different sauces and jalapenos to "spice things up" a bit. They have been having some variety with pasta too, but he also says that he's eating too much junk food. We were surprised by this, but he explained that the constant backwards and forwards to the flat for meals was becoming too time-consuming and so they were starting to eat out more. He did point out proudly that they had bought vegetables last week. Hadn't used them yet, but they had bought them.

Tomorrow (Thursday) there will be a combined Five Mission (ie five Australian missions) Conference with a member of the Seventy and the Presiding Bishopric speaking to them. (He had thought it was going to be last Monday, but he got the date wrong.) Mum explained that the Presiding Bishopric focuses a lot on the service given by the Church around the world. She spoke of how her Mission President (Glen L Pace) had been in the Presiding Bishopric and had gone to Ethiopia in the 80's to see how the Church could assist during the famine. Elder East mentioned that they were teaching somebody from Ethiopia at the moment.

Their finding and teaching are still a bit haphazard. Having finished going through old investigators in their area book, they are focusing on those who didn't answer or those who were too busy when previously contacted. Unfortunately, they're not currently allowed to street contact, tract or use any other finding method in public, and there are very few members to try and work with. Most of their discussions last week, including six scheduled for last Friday fell through. They have managed to teach three discussions so far this week. They have one lady they've taught twice that they're trying to get a French BoM for. Another person they've always managed to teach in person at the chapel. They also taught a lesson to a member. Elder East says that he's working on learning to ask questions that help the individuals apply the gospel to themselves.

They're still going running in the mornings, but not on P-days, Sundays or in the rain. Elder East is also trying to do some additional exercise in the afternoons - "muscle stuff". He has bought himself some more t-shirts and shorts for running/exercising.

For his current personal study, he has taken up a challenge by the Stake President to read the Book of Mormon before the next Stake Conference. He's currently in Mosiah. He's been supplementing some of his studies by listening to the related BYU Round Table scripture discussions that I loaded onto his phone before departure. He's enjoying re-discovering concepts and doctrines that he's learnt, but which are now popping out at him in the scriptures. One example this week was studying more about the concept of the First Resurrection.

Because of the irregular movements of missionaries in and out of the mission due to Covid-19 restrictions, transfers aren't as scheduled or regular as they used to be. There will likely be a mini-transfer tomorrow for the Sisters coming out of quarantine. Elder East believes there may be a companionship of sister missionaries assigned to the Adelaide City Branch. In other transfer news, Elder Bataar was replaced by Elder Lwin from Myanmar who has trained seven times! Their current District Leader is being transferred out today, which Elder East is sad about. He believes that Elder Reeves' three-way companionship is about to be split down to a regular companionship.

He is enjoying the Sacrament meetings, even though none of the people they invited to Church came along this week.  He's really enjoying the Sunday School lessons in the Branch. The Sunday School teacher is a former mission president and is a good teacher. There was an investigator that brought himself along to Church this week after having seen the Book of Mormon play.

I sent Elder East some photos of himself when he was 4 years old. he was with several statues from along North Terrace in Adelaide when we drove across the Nullarbor in 2006. I checked out the location of the statues and they are literally less than 200 metres across the road from the Adelaide City Branch chapel. I told him he needed to take some modern photos of himself with the statues.

Dot point notes:

• We spoke about Sister missionaries in Houston that were recently broken into and stabbed by a neighbor.
• Some discussion about major happenings in world news.
• He had less emails to respond to this week - Alex, Jewel and Kendall
• He's not feeling homesick (for us at least)
• Although both Elders in a companionship have phones, there is just a single SIM card that belongs to the area. The SIM card is primarily kept by the senior companion but swapped as needed.
• He's gotten himself some "rule-compliant" socks.
• He seems to be adjusting better to the missionary lifestyle of living with somebody else.
• Mum asked him when he felt the Spirit throughout the week. He responded whilst teaching lessons and during the Temple Recommend interview with President Marquis. 

[Late update: We received a happy message from Elder East later in the evening, letting us know that they had taught the investigator who brought himself to Church on Sunday. Not only had they taught him, but they had committed him to baptism. Elder East wrote "He's been prepared. He's done his research and he's willing to [keep the commandments]. [His baptism is scheduled for] October 31st." The Elders understand that's a long way off and that there will be challenges ahead, but it's exciting for them.]

Video Chat - 05th August 2020 - Adelaide City Branch

Some additional notes from the video char we had with Elder East on P-Day, Wednesday 5th August.

Elder East clarified that his companion is Elder De Guzman. In the AAM blog, the photos of the new missionaries and their trainers had Elder East listed as being with Elder Narag. He doesn't know Elder Narag at all. Elder De Guzman is from the Philippines and has been out for about eight months (he came into the field in Dec 2019.) English isn't his first language so there are sometimes some communication issues but they're getting along fine. Elder De Guzman has been Zone Leader for the past 4 months. Elder East says that Elder De Guzman is a good cook.

Their flat is a single-story apartment in the suburb of Evandale and is quite old and rundown. Apparently, they enter their flat via the backdoor because they're worried that if they use the front door it will break.

They don't have a car or bike at all and rely on public transport to get around. He said that isn't bad, although kind of awkward when trying to bring back groceries.

The City Branch area used to have eight missionary companionships, however because of the reduction in missionaries associated with the pandemic, it's now just them and one other companionship. The other companionship is Elder Baraat and Elder Roberts. Elder Baraat is Elder De Guzman's previous companion who is from Mongolia and who's been out for 28 months now because he can't go home. Elder Roberts is the Maori elder who was in quarantine with Elder East.

They're doing most of their work by going through the old area books - which is handy as they have 4 area books to be able to use. Because of the pandemic, missionaries are unable to do much in the way of public contacting, and can't just visit members uninvited. They only had just over 20 members at Church on Sunday - by the sounds of it, a lot of the ward list are international students that haven't been able to return because of the pandemic, or which they've lost contact with, so working with members may be rather limited.

They had however already managed to teach two discussions - one over the phone, and one in person. Another consequence of the pandemic is that they do most of their teaching appointments at the chapel, so they are regularly there.

Elder East commented that he preferred the discussion they taught over the phone rather than the one in person. He's still lacking a lot of confidence in his teaching skills and ability to work with other Elders whilst teaching. They apparently had another two teaching appointments after dinner on P-Day, so it sounds like they're at last getting good opportunities to teach.

There were two photos from Elder East that I didn't include in the email post, and they were of the derposaurs at Morialta Falls on their first day out of quarantine with President Marquis. I've merged the two photos together to produce the following image.

Email Home - 05th August 2020 - Trainer and First Area

Here's the email we received from Elder East on Wednesday 5th August 2020:
Clarifications or notes that have been inserted by Adam are in [square brackets].

This week I have been transferred to the [Adelaide] City Branch area with Elder De Guzman as my trainer.

Apparently Elders assigned to the City area often stay there a while and may [frequently] spend some time up in Darwin. The City Branch is also a Chinese speaking area however [attendance is low] because of the Covid restrictions. Many members are stuck back in their home countries like China or Hong Kong. The City Branch takes up an entire floor in an office building in the city. The entire seventh floor to be precise. Although the missionaries normally assigned to the City Branch are Chinese speaking I don't have to learn it thankfully, though if I spend long here I may end up learning some anyway.

On the bus ride from our flat to [the chapel] (where we do all our work), we pass by four churches, the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, the SA Museum, the SA Art Gallery, the SA State Library, and [the Freemason's] Grand Lodge. And just across the street from the [chapel] is the Adelaide War Memorial (or at least one part of it). You can see it from the [chapel] window which is awesome.

One of the missionaries in quarantine with me was assigned to the City Branch as well but with a different companion so I'll still see him every day.

We had an in-person Zone Conference this Monday which had all the missionaries come together for. It was great to hear from Pres Marquis and to hear and see all of the presentations made for us. We did a musical item that I'm sure Pres will release in a while. I was able to see all of the quarantine missionaries there as well which was great to catch up with them.

In the field, I've gotten a couple of clarifications of rules from my companion. I'm not supposed to use Messenger at all unless it's on P-day with family or it's with investigators. So it's best if you email me during the week instead. Another clarification I've had is that I'm only supposed to have plain socks so all of my socks are unfit to wear :(

[In response to finding out that the heater under Jewel's desk had caught fire] That's what Jewel gets for putting the heater under her desk, that place was a safety hazard since day one.

[In response to both Dad and Jewel being sick] Sending my love home to Dad and Jewel hoping that they get better from their sicknesses.

[In response to news about increasing Covid restrictions in Victoria] I heard Melbourne had introduced curfew but I didn't know it was that bad. Rumor has it (rumor because we don't have news) that SA is bringing back a lot of restrictions because we're getting a handful of cases, only 15 or so but it's enough.

[About keeping in touch with his friend, Alex, back in Canberra] I'll be sending Alex an email today, don't worry.

[About the fact that Elissa and Elder Reeves' Mum have struck up a friendship] It's great that you and Sister Reeves have been talking a lot. It was funny in quarantine because Elder Reeves and I would talk a lot then we'd both talk back home to Kendall and then we'd talk back home to our respective parents who would talk to each other. We were/are getting pretty involved with each other's family.

I'll talk more about my companion in a sec. But Elder Reeves trio seems a lot more chill and less strict than my companionship for sure. The hike though was pretty amazing, we saw a bunch of koalas closer than I've ever seen and so close to humans as well. Photos in drive.

I talked to a guy [at Church] who said he was told to look out for me and he blessed the sacrament while I passed. Thanks for sending the word out.

My companion is alright, he is a zone leader as well as being a trainer so he's got a lot on his plate. And while he's doing both as best as he can I don't think he wants to be either. Especially as he's been a zone leader for 4 transfers. But he's an excellent missionary and we've had some great moments during study together and he's a great cook.

I had an interview with my Pres Marquis last Friday right before the transfer on Saturday, he is an awesome guy and so far I keep loving everything he does for us more and more.

Also thanks for the insights from your seminary class, I won't respond to them but I love reading them.

A response to last week's email: (half-written quite a while later).

South Australia has a mandatory 12th day Covid test, so all 5 of us got tested on the second Tuesday of quarantine. It was a 40-minute drive to the testing centre and an hour and a half wait. Thankfully the test was short but by the time we got back to our flat, we'd spent half of the day out already. None of us have Covid but three of us got tested in the same room so we had fun laughing at each other's pain, I actually took the test the best and barely had a reaction. As being written we don't know exactly when quarantine ends but it's either Friday or Saturday. (The quarantine ended on Friday but we got our new companionships and areas on Saturday)

I did get my shoes - thank you - and thank you especially for the hot chocolate, I've waited 'til out of quarantine to enjoy them the most.

We got Elder Reeves package last Thursday, and it's amazing. The cookies look and taste amazing! (Photos in drive)

Pancakes did turn out pretty good in the end. We had them a couple times and they were always good. The quality of meals in quarantine slowly decayed until the end when we got KFC.
Bread Nachos is bread with oil, taco mix seasoning, and cheese on top of bread put in the oven for 5 minutes, and it's really good. Elder Reeves and I created that last Monday in quarantine when we mistakenly thought we were getting our groceries that day.

The mission/zone conference was just an announcement that we're limited to 10 hours of service each week and only 2 hours of service for members.

Love from, Elder East.