Video Chat - 4th April 2022 - Teaching via Video to Mexico

It was back to a regular Monday P Day this week, so it was only 5 days since our last chat, with most of the discussion being on things happening back at home:

• Elder Reeves' Dad has said that he'd like to get baptized. As you'd expect, his family is excited.
• Elder Aiho has gotten engaged. He's been home from his mission for 5 months now.
• We chatted about how Elissa is having some problems at her work, and how I was still sick from Covid.
• They were studying the Passover in Seminary this week and so we talked about different historical versions of the Passover.
• We chatted about General Conference that had just been held with the announcement of 17 new temples being built.

A couple of quick notes from the mission field as well:

• The First Counselor in the Mission Presidency, Elder Raeside has been called as an Area Authority.
• Eight missionaries are coming into the AAM next week - five from New Zealand and 3 greenies. Elder Wolff from Canberra will be one of those greenies.

Elder East also shared that they ended up having a lesson last Wednesday with somebody whom Elder Ma'a had previously taught at the start of his mission. The person in question had moved back to Mexico in the meantime however he and Elder Ma'a reconnected via Facebook. Elder Ma'a and East taught him a lesson via video last Wednesday. He has committed to be baptised and the APs have referred him to the local missionaries in Mexico to continue his gospel lessons.

Even though there wasn't much mission news, Elder East did send us a bunch of photos. 

Given the missionaries, in the above photos photo, we're assuming that this was part of the "Leavers" meeting for those missionaries who were completing their missions last transfer.

We're presuming that this is Elder East's collection of dirt from various towns he's worked in during his mission.

Later in the day Elder East also went suit shopping as he needed a new suit. He contacted us for some feedback on the suits he was trying on. 

Video Chat - 24th February 2021 - Worn Out His First Lot of Shoes

As usual, we chatted with Elder East last P-Day about the past week. 

Last Thursday was Elder Taua's "Leaver's " dinner and session at the Temple. Elder east was expecting to spend time with the APs that evening but ended up in the Morialta area with his old companions, Elders Kennach and Nalesoni.

The major event was the Missionary Leadership Council that was held the previous Saturday. I mentioned in a separate blog that the Area Authority in attendance was Elder Paul Lekias, and his wife Rebecca whom we both know. Elder East said that the MLC was good, but that it was less of a council and more of being taught, possibly because it was the first one in over a year with an Area or General Authority in attendance. 

The main things covered in the MLC included Referrals, Finding and a doctrinal discussion about the Atonement. There were concerns raised that some of the referrals aren't being contacted. Elder East did note that some referrals are obviously fake. I shared that we got one when I was a missionary in Tamworth for "Slim Dusty". We knew it would be fake but went and checked out the address anyway - it was a car yard :) Elder East said that the Lekias' provided a referral that ended up being in their area. Elder East checked but said that the woman who answered said that she wasn't interested.

On Sunday Elder East spoke in Sacrament Meeting. He said that he used the examples of Nephi vs Laman & Lemuel after the death of Lehi. Nephi was able to keep himself on track whereas Laman & Lemuel didn't have Lehi continually calling them to repentance. He encouraged people not to rely on others to call us to repentance.

Again, there's also another blog entry about how May Sandeline-McCann, Elissa's trainer on her mission, just happened to be visiting Elder East's ward on Sunday when he was speaking and got to tell him "I was your Mum's trainer". That's the second of his parents' missionary companions that Elder East has now met.

On Monday they held District Council  - and Elder East said that he cooked chocolate chip cookies for everyone. 

Speaking of their investigators he spoke of the lady they're teaching. They had another lesson with her. Elder East says she has a medical condition that makes it hard for her to read but she read a whole chapter in the scriptures with them. The two other main investigators they have - Daniel and his cousin - hadn't replied back to their contacts over the last week, so they're concerned as to how they're doing. It had been a week and a half since they've seen them.

They had a referral from the Sister missionaries that they visited. The person was interested, but Elder East described them as crazy. Happy crazy, not depressed crazy though :) Elder East mentioned that the highlight of the week was some finding they did in Seaford, but he didn't explain why it was a highlight. They had three lessons scheduled for Wednesday evening - two with members and one with an investigator.

 A couple of other dot points from our discussion:

• They have started doing some exercise at night time - going for a walk down to the beach and back Obviously they're living within walking distance of the coast.
• They have gone over their kilometre allowance for their car, so they plan on riding bikes for the rest of the month. Elder East has only ridden a bike fro 2 days during the first 8 months of his mission.
• Edler East bought himself some new Church shoes and runners earlier on P-day. He said that he'd worn through his existing shoes.
• A number of missionaries in the mission are counting down their remaining time in the mission field as a lot of them now have elss than 100 days left.

Video Chat - 23rd December 2020 - Unexpected Chat & Murray River Cruise

President Marquis had arranged for a P-Day activity for the Adelaide missionaries this week, so we hadn't planned on chatting this Wednesday. Fortunately, Elder East was able to have two chats with us once in a library on the way home, and once in the evening. 

The P-Day activity itself involved meeting at one of the chapels and then driving out in convoy to Murray Bridge where they then took a cruise along the Murray River on a paddleboat. I'm presuming that we'll see some photos up on the mission blog at some point.

 

Elder East said it was a good chance to socialise with the other missionaries. As expected, he said he spent a lot of time talking with Elder Reeves. 

We learned a bit about his new area during our chats. Their mission flat is in a block of six units. It's a two-bedroom unit - they all have beds, which isn't always the case in a three-way companionship.

Morialta Ward is a big ward but Elder East says that there's not a strong level of trust from the members. He says that it's because it's the ward that the mission home is in and so, over time, a number of missionaries "with issues" that needed to be close to the mission office have been assigned to the ward. Subsequently, they don't get many meals with members. 

He said that they did have a meal with the Howes family and that the dad had been the Mission President of the Sydney North Mission when it was recreated in 2013.  

They also met up with the McCappin family at one point - Brother McCappin (David) and I served together as missionaries in Tamworth. He mentioned to Elder East about cutting my hair one time. I explained to Elder East that I'd gotten a haircut from a member and that they'd put a "Step" in my haircut. The Mission President had said that it wasn't in line with the missionary grooming guidelines and has asked me to lose it. We decided that the easiest way to do so was just to get a crewcut all over. I sent through the following picture of Elder McCappin and myself to Elder East. His comment was that I was "White white". I commented that it was more that "some of me had a tan."

They were asked to go visit some of the recent converts last week which they did. In doing so they actually came across a barbecue at one of their homes that also had the Bishop and EQP's families present. 

There aren't a lot of previous investigators for the companionship to contact in their area book. There were some females who were being taught but they are being looked after by the Sister Missionaries in the neighboring City Branch. Elder East says that he's already tried calling everybody in their area book twice since transfers.

The next couple of days have several mission activities planned. On Thursday (Christmas Eve) they will be having a Zone Conference for the Adelaide Zones followed by a dinner, and then on Friday, Christmas Day, they will be doing a service project with the Salvation Army for most of the day. We'll get to chat with Elder East again in the late afternoon/evening of Christmas Day.

Some other quick dot point notes:

• Elder East is a bit frustrated at being transferred again.  He's been in the mission for 4 transfers and has been in 4 different wards so far. We encouraged him to gain a testimony that this is where the Lord would have him be at this time. 
• He's also a bit frustrated that there have been changes in mission rules that are limiting the number of times that missionaries can gettogether outside of their companionships. (No trade-offs this transfer, and only one district P-Day activity allowed.) Again, we encouraged him to understand that there would be reasons as to why the Mission President has these rules currently in place, and he doesn't know what issues other missionaries might be struggling with that prompted these decisions. Sicne when did Elder East become social?
• He did say that despite being frustrated, the fact it's Christmas time and being able to chat with Elder Reeves a bit has helped him out.
• Elder East has splurged on buying Christmas food and is intending to do a baked ham and roast veges on Christmas Day. He said that he "didn't want wraps for Christmas dinner."
• As planned, he had purchased a new suit as a Christmas present from us to him which we'll reimburse him for. 
• He quickly skimmed through some of his photos to show us photos with some of the ward members.

• Another series of photos featured a koala that they happened to pass by somewhere.

• He showed us around the lounge room of his flat where they have a makeshift Christmas tree with lights setup. Underneath it were presents that he'd received from the Reeves and Lisa Koskinen.

Video Chat - 02nd December 2020 - Lots of Trade-Offs

No district BBQs on P-Day this week, but some of the district did go bowling ... but we weren't sent any photos. It was a busy week for them.

They had two lots of trade-offs during the week. Elder East says that he quite enjoys doing trade-offs. On Thursday and Friday they traded off with Elder Brown and Elder Reeves. Elder East was with Elder Brown, the mission's newest trainee in their area whilst Elder Tukukino went up to Elder Reeves' area. Over the Sunday and Monday they then had trade-offs with Elder Nalesoni and his companion. Elder Nalesoni was Elder East's companion during their initial quarantine period. 

Elder East says that Elder Nalesoni is a lot less reserved than when he first came into the mission field but still isn't overly confident, but that it was good to see him starting to open up more. Elder East also commented that Elder Brown is a bit of a games enthusiast and had a couple of small card games to play in the evening before bedtime - Fort and Here To Slay. Elder East is usually up for a game at any time.

They have another trade-off scheduled for the coming week (Thursday and Friday) with the Elders in the Onkaparinga Ward. He did also say they were having trade-offs with the Sister Missionaries on Monday, but I'm going to assume that he was joking.

Elder East said that they got to give a lot of service during the last week including to an elderly lady who has cancer. They spent time working in her garden with some of her friends.

Elder East commented that they are struggling with their own investigators - not many of them are progressing spiritually at this time. They did have one gentleman at Church but have some concerns about his progression and note that there are a lot of people with mental health concerns in the area.

Elder East asked if Mum knew an Elder Varcoe on her mission. She didn't, but I did. Turns out he has passed away and that his widow has remarried and is in their Ward. They had dinner with the family during the week - it's a large blended family with 8 kids. One of Elder Varcoe's sons is currently preparing to go on his mission.

Elder East and Mum talked about the study that Elder East is doing. He finished the Book of Mormon again about a month ago and has been focusing on a lot of General Conference talks - mainly President Nelson's talks, as well as bits and pieces from the Book of Mormon. He says that he's also trying to do some study around mental health too given the prevalence in the area. 

Some other minor points from the discussion:

• He got a haircut again this P-Day. Fast-growing hair is a family curse.
• Mum is trying to convince Elder East for him and his companion to go and get a Santa photo together. Elder East doesn't sound too keen on the idea.
• For Christmas, Elder East would like a new short-sleeve button-up shirt or a tie. It sounds like Mum might end up getting him a Hawaiian shirt. Apparently, his preference is for a dark base but with bright colours - perhaps floral.
• Transfers are in two weeks. He would prefer to remain in his companionship and area, but if things did change, he'd like to have one of the newer missionaries as a companion rather than being the young one.
• We found out about the package that he had been working on on P-Days to send to Kendal.

The Great Pre-Mission Clothing Shopping Splurge™

Elissa took Seth out shopping two Saturdays ago for The Great Pre-Mission Clothing Shopping Splurge™. Seth's not a huge fan of clothes shopping but recognised this was a necessary inconvenience.

The final tally came to:

• 8 white long-sleeved shirts
• 5 pairs of pants
• 2 sweaters/jumpers
• 1 winter coat
• 1 belt
• 2 ties
• 8 pairs of socks
• 1 pair pyjamas
• 1 pair business shoes
• 1 pair runners
• 1 pair shorts for exercise

Seth didn't just go with all dark suit pants, also choosing a light blue pair that he liked, as modelled below. 

In addition to what was bought, he also has a couple of suits that were given to him by Graham M from Church about a year ago. Most of the clothes are currently down in the spare room - soon to become Seth's "Missionary Training Centre".

Seth also bought himself a satchel with money from Grandma & Grandad Yates that they sent for his mission prep. (Missionaries aren't meant to use backpacks these days.) Nanny & Grandad East are planning to send over money to help buy temple clothing for Seth when the Distribution Centres open up again.

There was a bit of drama later in the day when Elissa realised that none of the white shirts that they'd bought for Seth have pockets, which is how missionaries usually wear their name tags. After some querying, she found out that a lot fo the missionary tags these days actually use magnets, so shirts don't actually need pockets.