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.

Video Chat - 21st February 2022 - The NT With President Johansson & Elder Nattress

 Much of our chat this week was about the APs trip up to the Northern Territory the previous week.

The APs flew up to Alice Springs on Wednesday and had trade-offs with the missionaries in the afternoon. President Johansson and Elder Nattress (First Counselor in the Area Presidency) flew up to Alice Springs on Thursday and took some personal time to head out to Uluru and Segway around the rock before returning to Alice Springs. This gave them a long amount of time to do some one-on-one counseling/training together as well as getting to see a famous tourist sight. 

On Friday they had a meeting with the Alice Springs missionaries as well as a Fireside in the evening for members and investigators. They had four investigators come along to the Fireside in the evening. 

On Saturday they flew up to Darwin. Elder East sent us the following message:

But truthfully I had this really great experience on Saturday.

We had just flown into Darwin and we had gotten the Elders to the chapel to meet Elder Nattress. We went to get lunch for everyone to bring back and then had a meeting with him.

During the meeting I was about to fall asleep. I just felt so dead and I remember thinking that straight after this meeting when I go with the Elders I'm gonna go nap.

But I was also like I gotta help these Elders and be an example and so I said a prayer and was like "hey if you need me to do something up here can you please give me the strength to do it, but if not can I please get some rest."

At the end of the meeting President turns to us APs and says he's gonna need us for a bunch of things and almost Immediately I felt wide awake and full of energy and felt like that the rest of the day.

So it was pretty simple but for me, it was a really clear cause and effect of God helping me in that moment that I loved.

After helping out President, they went out tracting in the heavy rain with the Darwin missionaries and got a return appointment. On the Saturday evening, there was meant to be a Leadership Dinner with President Johansson and Elder Nattress, and the local priesthood leaders. Unfortunately, of the local leaders, three had covid, two were away and of the others, only one was able to make it. 

On Sunday there was a combined Church meeting for both the Darwin and Palmerston Branches. The APs were acting as greeters. They were getting worried when with several minutes before Church was due to start both President Johnasson and Elder Nattress hadn't arrived yet, and as noted most of the other local leaders were away, in isolation or otherwise indisposed. Fortunately, they arrived right at the 9am start time. 

There was a lunch put on after Church finished and Elder East was able to catch up with a number of members from Palmerston Branch who he knew. The Stubbs, who have recently moved from Canberra to Darwin also happened to recognise him. They sent the following photo to the Canberra Stake Facebook group. 

On Sunday afternoon they went out to visit some of the former investigators from when Elder East was in the area. The only person who they managed to catch up with though was Sister King - again, another former Canberra member who had recently moved up to Darwin. The Kings hadn't been to Church in a  while so Elder East was happy to get a return appointment with them for the Palmerston missionaries.

They then tracted a complex of six houses. From those six houses, there was no answer from two, they taught a lesson at one and got three return appointments from the others. They were happy to be successful with the tracting as the NT missionaries had been saying that they don't see any success tracting, however, Elders East & Evans taught or got return appointments every time they went out tracting in the NT during the week.

They ended up flying back down to Adelaide on the P Day Monday, so our video chat was in the evening. 

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• Elder East managed to get some sand for his "collection" from one of the Darwin beaches.
• He bought himself a souvenir tie in Darwin.
• We sent him some PDFed university course guides to read on the plane on the flight back to help him make a decision about whether he needs to apply for university before he finishes his mission in June. We confirmed that his return date was the 15th June - about 5 days earlier than we'd previously thought.
• Elder East said that It has been really good being with Elder Nattress - he's a very nice, and spiritual, man. The whole trip has been really tiring though - even President Johansson is super tired.
• He commented about how being an Assistant to the President has been hard, but he's never felt unfulfilled. He feels that he's doing really well, both spiritually and emotionally.
• Here's a photo of a baby thorny devil that they found during their time in Alice Springs.

Video Chat - 31st January 2022 - The Jetsetting APs Hit Alice Springs

It was a busy week of travel for the APs over this last week. We'd mentioned how they had driven up to Broken Hill last Monday, spent some time checking out the area and talking to the Branch President before driving back down on Tuesday. There aren't a lot of active members of the Church in Broken Hill, but a total of around 100 including all of the less active members.

On Wednesday they drove down to Victor Harbour which is about an hour south of Adelaide. They had trade-offs on the Wednesday and Thursday with the missionaries in the area. The companionship is a three-way companionship that included one of his old companions, Elder Davey. It was a hot Australia Day whilst they were there Elder East says that they were accosted in the street by an ex-member who wanted to Bible bash with them. Elder East says that they showed a lot of patience and Christ-like love in dealing with the person. :)  

Elder East commented that the Victor Harbour Elder's taught him how to do Facebook video editing that night. Elder East thought it was potentially a handy skill to have

On Friday (28th Jan) they had a 6am flight up to Alice Springs, spending the weekend in the Alice before flying back 11am on the P Day we chatted (31st Jan). There'd been a bit of a commotion for the Alice Springs missionaries before the APs arrived. When going to bed on Thursday night they'd forgotten to lock the door to their house. Even though they live in a gated community, a group of young Aboriginal kids had come into their house, stolen their deodorants (for huffing) and the keys to the missionaries' car. The missionaries woke up to the kids trying to get the car started. The missionaries were able to close the front gate and stop the kids from stealing their car, but the kids still managed to hit several things with the car before fleeing. This was apparently the third time the Alice Springs missionaries have had their car broken into.

Once Elders East and Evans arrived they spent the time trading off with the other Elders. Elder East said that the Alice Springs missionaries do a lot of sports activities and the APs helped refine them from just sports into more effective finding tools. Despite it being quite wet whilst they were Elder East said that it was a really nice time. 

We discussed how the heavy rains and flooding in the NT and SA over the last couple of weeks were affecting the transport network. Elder East said the Alice Springs shops were pretty empty and sent us the following photos. He said that they ended up at a Red Rooster for dinner one evening and they only had half of their menu available. 

Some additional notes from our chat:

• Elder East got himself some (wet) sand from Alice Springs to add to his collection.
• Elder Reeves is about to go home next week. 
• They've hardly seen President Johansson over the last week. That's unusual as they usually spend most of their time working together. 
• Elder East is thinking about whether he might extend his mission by a transfer. 

Video Chat - 27th September 2021 - Territory Wildlife Park and Bad News About Nanny

We had received the news on the Sunday night that Elder East's paternal grandmother had been put into palliative care and was only expected to last a day or two before passing. We notified the mission office about the circumstances and advised that we'd be letting Elder East know on P Day. We didn't want to delay notifying him in case she passed away quickly, we wanted him to be prepared. 

Contacting him early on P Day, he told us he wasn't free to speak at the time. The Senior Missionary couple was taking the Elders and four of their grandkids to the Territory Wildlife Park. The park is a natural habitat zoo in Berry Springs, about 45 minutes south of Darwin and they were currently on their way driving to the Park.

Once they arrived at the Park we were able to have a quick call and let Elder East know about his grandmother. We know that it's something he would want to silently contemplate through the day.

The Park that they were visiting was essentially a big zoo that showcases the NT environments The Park featured a forest, wetlands, a coastal exhibit, a nocturnal house, a lagoon, an aviary and even an aquarium.  Elder East particularly liked the Birds of Prey show that showcased eagles but also included other large birds such as emus and storks. He said that the show included an eagle that cracked open an egg using a rock, a little-known natural behavior for the eagle in the wild which the show highlights. 

Elder East sent us through a few photos from the day.

Going back over the events of the week, the Elders flew back from Alice Springs on Tuesday (21st Sep) morning after which they then met up with Elder East's Great Uncle Ross who was visiting Darwin. They went out for lunch at a nearby burger joint.  He said it was good meeting up with Uncle Ross. The rest of Tuesday involved catching up with P Day activities like shopping that they weren't able to do due to still being in Alice Springs.

Elder East had his second covid vaccine shot on Thursday (23rd Sep). He was fortunate not to get too serious side effects but was very tired on Friday. Elder Roberts was scheduled to have his second covid vaccination on Saturday (2nd Oct).

On Thursday evening they attended the Branch Coordination Council. Afterward, when heading to their car they had an inebriated local approach them wanting them to drive him home about 20-30 minutes away. Missionaries aren't allowed to take other people in their cars so they politely declined. The local then wanted money for food.  They said that they would go get him some at which point he tried to get into their car. They politely stopped him from doing so and then left and got him some McDonalds. When they returned with food for him he seemed surprised that they'd actually returned. 

Friday was spent Zooming in to the Missionary Leadership Council that was being held down in Adelaide. 

On Saturday they provided some service to a less-active member by mowing their lawn. They ere pleasantly surprised when the member turned up to Church the following day.

On Saturday evening the two branches held a combined pot luck dinner and dance which the missionaries from both branches attended. One of their investigators attended the evening as they'd been invited by a member friend. Elder East said that he danced with a number of the elderly ladies during the evening, as well as joining in the Nutbush

Some other dot points from our discussion:

• The Elders bought a Magic The Gathering card collection from somebody they were working with which they'll split between themselves. 
• After having been good for a long time, they've eaten a lot of fast food over the last couple of weeks. Elder East says on the plus side that he now has enough winning stickers from the McDonald's Monopoly promotion that he doesn't have to pay next time they go to McDonalds. 
• His trainer Elder De Guzman managed to get home during the week, presumably on an out-of-cycle repatriation flight back home to the  Philippines. Elder East was disappointed he wasn't able to farewell him.
• We spent a bit of time talking about how Nanny (his grandmother) was doing and how her health had deteriorated over the last week.
• Transfers is next week and he thinks he'll likely be transferred. 
• The Elders did a short video which was shared on the mission social media pages during the week. They filmed the video down in Alice Springs.

Video Chat - 20th September 2021 - Trade-offs In Alice Springs

Our weekly video chat with Elder East was delayed as the Elders were still in Alice Springs on trade-offs for P Day. President Johansson, who had joined the Elders in Alice Springs, had decided to have the Elders stay the day and spend P Day with him as they toured some of the nearby tourist sights around Alice. 

It had been a busy week for them. On Tuesday and Wednesday they'd crammed in as many lessons and catchups with people as possible, knowing they'd be away for the rest of the week. 

They spent Wednesday night in the old Sister Missionary's flat in Darwin as they had to be up by 4AM on Thursday to get out to the airport for a 6AM flight. It was a 2 hour flight. Elder East said that they got to see the sunrise over Alice Springs as they arrived which was pretty. 

On Thursday Elder East was on trade-offs with Elder Beaumont-Tafua who had previously served with in Onkaparinga Ward. On Friday he spent the day with Elder Maher. President Johansson flew in on the Friday morning and spent some time talking with Elders East and Maher at the missionary's flat after arriving. Elder East mentioned that his favourite event during thre trade-offs was a lesson he taught with Elder Maher to a family on the Friday where they helped teach their 9YO daughter about the Gospel. They also had dinner with President Johansson on the Friday night.

He said that they did a lot of member work as Alice Springs is a reasonable-sized branch.  The branch is mainly made up of Polynesian and American members and there are a lot of part-member families. The members of the branch are excited at having missionaries back in the branch.

On Saturday he said that they got a free lunch at a canteen at the local netball stadium that is run by members of the branch. Elder East and Elder Roberts went out tracting together on the Saturday. They invited several people to Church and were able to get a couple of return appointments for the Alice Springs missionaries.

On Sunday President Johnasson was the main speaker in the branch Sacrament meeting and then took a combined second-hour class. They then all joined in with the missionary preparation class during the afternoon. On the Sunday evening there was a large get-together of about 8 member families (over 30 people)  and all of the missionaries for dinner. The missionaries shared a small lesson/message at the get together.

On the Monday P Day, President Johansson had been contemplating whether to try and take the Elders out to Uluru, but it's a 10-11 hour round trip, so they ended up visiting some locations closer to town. They went out to the West MacDonnell National Park and visited Standley Chasm and Simpson's Gap. On the drive out to the National Park they encountered a Thorny Devil on the road that had to shoo off.  Elder East bought himself a cap from the visitor's centre so that he didn't get sunburnt during the day. He enjoyed the visit and commented that Standley Chasm reminded him of The Narrows in Zion National Park. After the sightseeing, the Elders then had an activity going ten pin bowling back in town. Elders East and Roberts would then be flying back to Darwin on Tuesday morning (21st Sep.)

Besides helping out the Alice Springs missionaries and providing training, part of the purpose of the trade-offs was to assess if Alce Springs has sufficient work for additional missionaries to be assigned to the branch. Elder East noted that President Johansson is opening up and focussing on some areas that haven't had much missionary contact in a while. It's possible that Adrwin may be receiving more missionaries in the future.

Some other dot point notes from our chat:

• They have a lunch appointment with Elder East's Uncle Ross scheduled for Tuesday (21st Sep) as he's currently visiting Darwin. 
• Elder East is due to have his second Covid vaccination on Thursday (23rd Sep).
• There was talk about whether to maybe have a future Zone Conference held in Alice Springs.
• President asked Elder East if he'd like to train. Elder East commented that technically he was a trainer of Elder Davey, although it was a three-way companionship and Elder East was transferred out after only 3 weeks. Elder east reckons that training in Alce Springs would be great. 
• They already have a busy week scheduled ahead of them for when they get back to Darwin.
• Elders East and Roberts are thinking of buying and splitting up a Magic the Gathering card collection from one of the people they know in Palmerston.

Video Chat - 13th September 2021 - Missionary Cane Toad Removal Service

The preceding week was a quiet but good week according to Elder East. They are still teaching a lot. He says that they are actually spending very little in the way of time doing finding as most of their time is taken up following up with people and teaching lessons. They were happy that a less-active member of the Church that they had been visiting came along to Church on Sunday. 

They all also provided a bit of service during the week - getting rid of another two cane toads. The first was at the same house as the last caen toad they got rid of. The second was at the same place where a snake came out of the garage whilst they were etaching. They removed one of the cane toads as it had killed a dog with its poison, whilst they removed the second one as a four-year-old child was about to try playing with it. Unfortunately, no photos of their cane toad extractions. We joked that at least we know what Elder East is going to do with his life after his mission - move to the NT and become a cane toad exterminator. 

With all of the recent discussions about trips to remote areas, Elder East advised that it looked like they weren't going to get out to Gove or Katherine. They were however going to be flying down to Alice Springs on Thursday morning (16th Sep) to have trade-offs with the missionaries there. They would be staying there over the weekend and flying back to Darwin on the following Monday morning (20th Sep).  President Johansson and the APs would be flying up from Adelaide to join them as well. Elder East was looking forward to seeing Alice Springs. He likes the idea of being able to try and work in remote regional towns.

Other dot points from our discussion included:

• The temperature hasn't gotten below 20° over the last 4 months that he's been in Darwin. Elder East reckons he prefers the cold weather, as you can look/dress nicer in cold weather.
• Elder East finished studying the Book of Mormon again, and has started back into 1st Nephi over the past week. 
• Elder East had bought himself new shoes and clothes during the last week. He's hoping that they'll last until the end of his mission.
• Elder East mentioned that they'd caught up with a member from Gove when he was in Darwin during the week, but we forgot to ask him about the details. 
• His Great Uncle Ross was going to be visiting Darwin during the week and was planning to try and take him out to dinner. Elder East wasn't sure if he'd be able to meet up with him though. Because of the trip to Alce Springs, they'd already tried to fill up Tuesday and Wednesday by seeing everybody they'd normally see during the week. 
• Four trainees were coming into the mission during the week. As a result, the missionary who has cut Elder East's hair whilst he's been in Darwin was transferred down to Adelaide. Much to Elder East's relief, however, the only other missionary who he'd let cut his hair was transferred up from Adelaide to Darwin to take the other Elder's place. 
• Elder East got into a joking argument with his sister Jewel about the family car he used to drive, which Jewel now drives. The car's upholstery was updated earlier in the year with a cowhide print material. Elder East joked that he wanted his toy dinosaurs that sit on the dashboard removed from the car so that they can have some dignity.