Video Chat - 11th April 2022 - Overnight Trip Up to Broken Hill With President Johansson

We got a run down from Elder East on some happenings from the previous week.

On the previous Tuesday (5th Apr) they had a Missionary Leadership Council on the importance of the Book of Mormon. Elders East & Ma’a also had the opportunity to have dinner with the Adelaide Temple President and his family.

Wednesday was a day of meetings - Technology Council followed by District Council. They then had trade-offs with the Zone Leaders. They went out tracting, as well as providing some service in Fulham Gardens.

They completed their trade-offs on Friday morning after which they headed off with President Johansson to go and get their flu shots at 10am. Whilst waiting, President told them that he had to drive up to Broken Hill in a couple of hours and wanted the APs to accompany him on the drive. So that was their Thursday afternoon, accompanying President Johansson on a drive up to Broken Hill to do some paperwork that had to be done in person. The mission had re-opened the Broken Hill area for missionaries only three weeks earlier, so they ended up staying with the Elders overnight before driving back on Friday morning. Once back in Adelaide they were able to catch up and have a meal with a family who were visiting from Alice Springs. Elder Ma’a knew them well from his time serving in Alice Springs.

They were able to teach a number of lessons on Saturday including a video lesson with a lady that Elder East had previously taught when in Onkaparinga Ward. Saturday evening was taken up with making calls advising missionaries who would be affected by the following mid-cycle transfer.

On Wednesday Elder East had received an email about starting his preparation course for returning home. He admitted that this made him a little but trunkee. He is feeling a bit burnt-out. It is likely that he will remain AP until the end of his mission. If that is the case, he’s likely to be in a three-way companionship during the last 3 weeks of his mission as he helps train up his replacement.

Other notes from our chat:

• The mission is dealing with several missionaries who have Covid or are in isolation including the Port Pirie Elders. Probably the most unfortunate is the Elder who was due to leave for his original assignment in Italy. He undertook his mandatory PCR test two days before leaving even though he had no symptoms … and subsequently returned a positive result.
• They have an Elder Chick coming into the mission. He is the son of a missionary who was in the same MTC and mission as Elder East’s mum. We’ve actually caught up with them several times in the intervening years and sent a few photos of the younger Elder Chick through to Elder East.
• Elder East says that his new suit is doing well. It’s a bit darker than he expected it to be. It’s also “stretchy”, which he likes.
• We also spoke a bit about Easter. Elder East wasn’t too keen on having too much chocolate, so we arranged for a Coles delivery to the office. It included lots of small Easter chocolates that he could share with other people as well as a selection of fruit.
• He called Grandma & Grandad Yates later in the day which they were absolutely thrilled with.

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 - 24th January 2022 - Traveling Up To Broken Hill

Elder East called us later on P-Day (Mon 24th Jan) because he and Elder Evans had just driven up to Broken Hill with President Johanssen. They were investigating the area to see if it could support missionaries in the future. It was a 6-hour drive from Adelaide.

As usual, a quick recap of the past week. Tuesday of last week was spent in an all-day planning meeting with President Johanssen.

On Wednesday there were five new missionaries arriving - three Elders and two Sisters. Two of them had been serving in the Sydney Mission whilst waiting to get to Adelaide. The day was taken up with getting the new arrivals from the airport followed by the introduction of their trainers and the usual orientation activities. They had the Mount Barker and Alice Springs missionaries staying with them on Wednesday night.

On Thursday they had a meeting with President Johanssen and the Marion Stake leaders. They had the Mount Barker and Mount Gambier missionaries staying with them on Thursday.

On Friday was the Zone Conference for Moroni Zone, as well as interviews for the missionaries with President Johanssen, so again it was a busy day providing some training at the conference and assisting in managing the interviews. They had the Mount Gambier missionaries staying with them on the Friday night. 

Elder East joked that Saturday was their day of "rest". They ended up having to go and buy bulk lots of RATs for the mission

On Sunday they went to Church in Firle and now that they're looking after part of the ward, had Ward Mission Correlation with the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader. The latter part of the day was spent with President Johanssen in meetings about the mission's Facebook page.

In other quick notes from our chat:

• Lots of traveling coming up. After they get back from Broken Hill they'll be going to trade-off with the Victor Harbour missionaries, and then flying up to Alice Springs next weekend. Just after the next transfers they're due to drive out to Port lincoln and visit the members out there.
• Elder East has started a little hobby with his travels. He is getting a  small vial of sand from each of the locations he's visiting. He currently has some from Mildura and Broken Hill. We asked what Elder Evans thought of this idea ... he relayed the question to Elder Evans who replied "... interesting."
• The mission is slowly growing. They're now up to 50 missionaries in the AAM, and should be close to 70 by mid-year.