Video Call - 23rd May 2022 - Running on Two Hours Sleep & A New Companion

Today was the big day of the New Zealand assigned missionaries flying out of the AAM. When we spoke to Elder East he told us that he was operating on only 2 hours of sleep overnight due to the early check-in times (3:30am) for the departing missionaries. 

Just to add additional drama to the early start, they discovered that three of the missionaries didn't have the right Covid clearance certificates to be able to travel. They did have Covid clearance certificates, but not international Covid clearance certificates. The mission didn't even know that was a thing, and it was just fortunate that the other 12 departing missionaries did have the right type of certificates. Those three missionaries that were unable to depart were rescheduled to fly out on Wednesday (25th May). He said that whilst they were trying to sort out the Covid certificate issue the airport went from empty to full with long lines everywhere.

Just to add further complexity, they also received a call letting them know that some of the missionaries flying into the AAM from the New Zealand missions had missed their flight.

Because of everything that has been going on, lots of Elders have been using the APs flat as a temporary sleeping place. Elder East was happy that now that the other missionaries had flown out, the APs flat could get back a semblance of order again rather than being full of missionaries and luggage in transit.

Mid-transfers were happening the following day (Tues 24th May). President Johansson had made some last-minute changes to those originally planned. Elders East & Ma'a would be going into a three-way companionship to help train a new AP to replace Elder East when he leaves. Their new companion is Elder Nelson - one of the American missionaries who recently arrived into the mission. Elder Nelson is from South Jordan in Utah and has already served about 18 months of his mission in the USA whilst the borders were shut. He will be Elder East's 21st (and presumably final) companion on his mission.

Other quick notes from our chat:

• The Ward had a cottage evening activity during the week. The Elders taught a lesson about the Plan of Salvation. Elder East said that it was a good night.
• They were expecting eight people for Church on Sunday, but none of them ended up coming for various reasons, which they were disappointed about.
• Elder East successfully voted in the Federal Election on Saturday - he'd transferred his enrolment to SA. He ended up having to help other missionaries who still had their enrolments back at home to find appropriate polling centres to vote at
• Elder East will be heading up to Alice Springs next weekend where a number of baptisms will be occurring. 

Video Chat - 22nd November 2021 - Elder Evans Joins as a New Assistant to the President

We chatted with Elder East twice during last P-Day. He was rather down when we first spoke to him early in the morning as there had been some issues in the mission over the last 3 or 4 days. This had resulted in a lot of interviews by the Mission President and a number of changes in companionships. Missionaries hadn’t been the best at keeping the mission rules – nothing serious enough to be sent home over – but enough that it would affect the work and their ability to recognize the promptings of the Spirit. Helping President Johansson deal with that had obviously taken a bit of an emotional toll on Elder East. When we spoke to him again later in the day he was more upbeat and positive about how things were going.

Elder East filled us in on some more details of Elder Read. He said that they had been getting along well. Elder Read had previously lived in London, working as a kitchenhand before heading back to Melbourne. He was originally called to serve in one of the Chilean missions and spent several months there before Covid hit. He was reassigned to serve in the Adelaide Mission, but got caught up in the Melbourne lockdown and served some time there. He is now in the Adelaide Mission to complete his service. 

The rundown of their previous week (16th - 22nd Nov) was as follows:

Monday (15th Nov) - after having spoken to us on P Day he also contacted and spoke with Grandma and Grandad Yates to thank them for a car and money that they had sent through to him. They were pleasantly surprised to get to talk to him.

Tuesday (16th Nov) was Transfers, so a hectic day, as well as learning the ropes of being an AP from Elder Read. They got to have a farewell meal at a Burger restaurant with one of Elder East’s former companions (and his 13th cousin)  Elder Aiho who was heading home.

Wednesday (17th Nov) they had several new trainees fly in, so it was a matter of dropping Elder Aiho off at the airport and picking up three new missionaries - Two Elders and one Sister. They got to have lunch with the new trainees.

Thursday through to Saturday was helping President Johansson in dealing with a lot of interviews to deal with the issues that had arisen. He commented that they went out so that Elder Read could get a new suit on Saturday at one point. 

On Sunday they joined in the Marion Stake Conference. He said that they had a number of difficulties with their technology as they tried to broadcast the meeting. He said it got a bit humorous as the Zoom chat full of messages about problems with the broadcast was displayed behind the speaker at the pulpit.  Elder East mentioned that he got to catch up with some of the missionaries and old investigators he had taught in Onakapringa and Marion Wards. 

As a result of the missionary interviews, there were a number of leadership changes and movements amongst the missionaries.  Elder East now had a new companion as a fellow Assistant to the President, his former companion Elder Evans. Elder East said that Elder Evans was very surprised to be called as an AP. He had been serving down in Victor Harbour.

The coming week was going to include a lot of Zone Conferences where they would be accompanying President Johansson. 

Some other short notes from our discussion:

• They'd only had one "home cooked" meal during the week as quite often they're accompanying and eating with president Johansson. 
• One of Elder East's former companions, Elder Taua, who is now home from his mission, has gotten engaged to one of the former Sister Missionaries from the AAM. 
• Part of the upcoming training will be on rebalancing the service vs proselyting hours for the missionaries. As Covid restrictions reduce, the options for proselyting are opening up and should be more of a focus.
• Elder East got to show us a nativity display that is set up outside the mission office.

Video Chat - 8th November 2021 - No Fish & Chip Shops in Port Germein

Another weekly recount of how Elder East is doing out in the mission field.

Tuesday was spent doing a lot of doorknocking. They're trying to do at least an hour of doorknocking each day. They had a lesson with a lady who is involved a lot with family history. Elder East said that there was a name in her family tree (William Yates) that was the same as from one of his ancestors in Family Search. He was wondering if there could be some distant relation knowing that he has relatives from around the area. He also discovered that some of these people had graves in Port Pirie so he'll investigate further.

On Wednesday they did more doorknocking as well as provide some service for a member. Elder East said that the service involved a lot of shoveling and that a lot of the service they do is gardening or outside maintenance-related. 

They also had a teaching appointment with somebody they've been teaching for a while. He'd decided that for a laugh he was going to pretend to be a "Fundamentalist" to try and shock Elder Rea during the lesson.

On Thursday they helped a branch member with her family history. Specifically, there was a bit of ICT help required in trying to get her family history off of the old Personal Ancestral File and on to the Family Search website. 

On Friday they did over three hours of doorknocking, and as always is the way, the success didn't come until the end. The last three houses they doorknocked all resulted in return appointments. Maybe they just started at the wrong end of the street :)

Every Saturday they are providing service for a family in helping with their backyard cleanup and this week was no different. Later in the day they also taught a lesson. Elder East said that there was a "cool" thunderstorm that came through during the afternoon. In the evening they were at the nearby town of Port Germein.  They were hoping to get Fish & Chips for dinner whilst in town but found none, so ended up heading back to Port Pirie. Elder East sent us a photo of the two of them at the jetty at Port Germein. 

Elder East said that the highlight of the week spiritually was on Sunday. Besides Church, they were doorknocking and were able to teach two lessons that afternoon. One was to an 18-year-old guy with two of his mates and then another man later on. Elder East said that the Spirit was strong during the lessons. I'd like to hear more of these types of experiences from Elder East and in more detail. Sometimes we only find out about interesting or poignant events weeks or months after they occur when he'll casually mention them. It would be good to record more faith-promoting stories on this blog rather than just being a travelogue. Elder East has them, but he often doesn't think to share them with us even we ask about spiritual highlights of the week. 

Next weekend  (13th-14th Nov) they are hoping to get out to Whyalla Branch and visit the members around Whyalla and Port Augusta. They have contacted the referral from the previous week and arranged for them to come along to Whyalla Branch next Sunday (14th Nov).

They had been hoping to travel down to Adelaide last night (Sun 7th Nov) and then spend P Day with other missionaries before heading back to Port Pirie. Elder East is aiming to try and have a P Day meetup with the Adelaide Elders as a regular fortnightly event. Their plans were thrown into disarray though when they found out on Sunday that they had to travel down to Adelaide over Wednesday and Thursday (10th-11th Nov) for a devotional being held on Thursday. It is going to be a streamed devotional with Elder Lekias (Area Authority), several Area Seventies, and Elder Soares from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Other notes from our discussion:

• They are being fed a lot and are being given lots of leftovers as well. He said that the previous night's meal appointment had left them with about 6 servings of bolognese to take home. he says that their fridge is full and that they have "So much food."
• The mission had a Zoom meeting scheduled with President Johansson for that P Day evening (Mon 8th Nov.)
• Port Pirie Branch averages about 20-25 people in attendance at Sacrament each Sunday.
• Elder Rea is very physically fit. It's motivating Elder East to exercise. They've been going out jogging each morning. Elder East says that Elder Rea is also very smart. High praise from someone who's definitely no mental slouch himself. 

Video Chat - 1st November 2021 - His New Trainee, Companion Number 18, Elder Rea

The big news this week of course was Elder East picking up his new trainee, Elder Rea. I'll give a bit of a summary of Elder East's week as per usual.

The rest of his previous P-Day (Mon 24th Oct) was spent helping to open up Elder Reeves' new flat. Elder Reeves' area was being split and he was opening the new area with a new trainee as well. Elder East said that he was jealous that the new flat had a barbecue, although it did have a garage only accessible from a laneway, which wasn't so good. 

On Tuesday Elders East and Reeves went to the combined Adelaide Zones' Conference. Elder Reeves was providing the music (piano) for the conference so it was otherwise fairly quiet for Elder East. He said it was good with the missionaries doing a breakdown of D&C section 4. He did lament however that conference post-lunch sessions are always hard as they "digest" after lunch. 

Elder East said that he caught up with some of his previous companions at the conference - Elder Davey & Evans as well as Elder Stiles - the other missionary from Canberra.

On Wednesday the new trainees arrived during the afternoon. Elder East has been assigned Elder Rea from Mount Marrow, near Ipswich in Queensland. Elder Rea was originally assigned to the Wellington New Zealand Mission but will be serving in the AAM until the respective boundaries open up and missionaries from Australia can travel to New Zealand. Elder Rea is young - only 18 - and is the third of six children. He has two older brothers that are both on missions at the moment as well, and two younger sisters and a younger brother. Prior to coming on his mission Elder Rea was doing a carpentry apprenticeship. When we asked Elder East what type of carpentry he said "furniture, heritage stuff". Elder Rea is very tall - six foot two. Elder East describes Elder Rea as a "real country boy."

After orientation for the trainees on Wednesday afternoon, President Johansson took them all out to dinner at a nearby restaurant. It turned out to be a more expensive restaurant than President Johansson was expecting, but he decided they'd stay and told the missionaries to order what they wanted.  Elder East ordered a $65 rack of ribs. He reckoned it was the best meal he's had since Christmas dinner last year. 

The Elders all spent the night at Elder Reeves' new flat again before joining in a District Council on Thursday morning. Elders East & Rea then drove up to Port Lincoln and got Elder Rea settled in.

On Friday they went out to several appointments and taught several lessons.

On Saturday they went and provided some service at a member's home doing gardening. The family then gave them lunch and the Elders also taught a lesson. Afterwards, Elder Rea had his first taste of tracting which Elder East said that he enjoyed. 

On Sunday after Church, they attended a barbecue that was put on by some of the members. 

They have a referral from a Bishop in Melbourne from somebody in one of the country towns who is interested in being taught and getting baptised. They have to try and work out how they can teach them, and how the members can help support them as the person is 3.5 hours away from the missionaries in the Eyre Peninsula and an hour away from the nearest members.

Elder East says that Elder Rea is doing well after his first few days in the mission field.

Other notes from our discussion:

• Elder Rea went to school with one of the missionaries in the AAM.
• Elder Rea reckons that Elder East must be cheating at a card game they've played together :)
• They have four dinners and two lunches scheduled with members for the coming week.
• On Thursday nights they will often get leftover bakery products from one of the sisters from the branch who works in a bakery.
• Elder East has had a quick message from Elder Haycock since he returned home to say that he's doing OK. 
• Elder East reckons that he's getting into "Christmas mode" - whatever that may mean :)
• President Johansson is looking at reintroducing some of the rules around when and how missionaries can get together for social gatherings. He'd previously removed the rules in place from President Marquis. I think Elder East is kind of happy to see some of them being reintroduced.

Video Chat - 30th August 2021 - Darwin Cracker Night and Combined Branch Trivia Night

Elder East told us a bit more about his new companion, Elder Roberts, who is "cool.". He's from Sydney with a Maori background. His home area has been heavily hit by Covid. Elder Roberts likes playing basketball and also has a particular affinity with a racing arcade game, but hasn't found it yet in Palmerston. Much to Elder East's relief, Elder Roberts knows how to play MTG :)

The previous evening was "Cracker Night" in the NT, with Elder East commenting that there were a number of people letting off fireworks in the surrounding streets and another 2 or 3 groups in open space areas. He said that they went down to a jetty on a nearby river that has views of Darwin. they were hoping to catch some views of some larger public displays being put on in Darwin.  There happened to be a family and young kids that were setting off fireworks down there as well. The fireworks were meant to finish by 11pm, but Elder East said that they went late into the night.

Elder East sent us a bunch of short videos of the fireworks. I joined 4 of them together that feature slow-mo shots he took, and the other is at normal speed.

With the Sisters being transferred out of their Branch, the Elders had a busy week this past week. They were following up on a lot of the people who the Sisters had been teaching or helping and had a lot of teaching appointments. At one point they had 8 lessons scheduled for a single day. (Three ended up not occurring, but they still taught 5 lessons in a day.) Elder East says that they've met lots of cool and crazy ("nice crazy") people. 

The Elders took part in a combined activity night on Friday that was put on by the two Darwin branches - a trivia night.  They were on a table with some of the kids from the branches. Early on in the evening, they were coming first. However, the answers were being done via an online tool which started lagging for them after a while and their answers weren't registering. 

They haven't progressed their plans to go down to Katherine for a weekend yet. It will probably need to wait until things quiet down a bit. They did have a member from Katherine join the recent online broadcasts, but that member's contact details aren't available in the ward list.

President has let the Elders know that he may fly them down to Alice Springs to be able to do trade-offs with the missionaries that recently transferred in there. They are also considering flying the NT missionaries down for the Christmas Conference in December, borders allowing.

The Elders have a busy week ahead:

• Assisting with the Missionary Preparation class being held on Sunday nights;
• They are now participating in Branch Council meetings held on Thursday evenings.
• Zone Conference was scheduled for the coming Friday (3rd Sep). Zone Conferences were now going to be held separately rather than jointly, so it would just be the NT missionaries in the Zone Conference. President Johansson was planning to fly up for Zone Conference (border restrictions allowing.) This will be Elder East's first chance to meet him in person.
• There is a Disability Convention coming up that they will be helping at.

Some other minor dot point trivia from Elder East during the discussion:

• He was trying out new wireless headphones for the call - they weren't very good sound wise
• He has a spreadsheet where he keeps track of those missioanries coming into and leaving the mission.
• He is trying to practice some of his piano playing - he played High On The Mountain Top for us. He's a bit rusty, but we could recognise the tune.
• I let him know to expect a possible package during the week - I told him it was a half-eaten chocolate bar.

Arriver Training Photos - 12th & 13th May 2021

 The AAM Blog has put up some photos of the missionary intake from the 12th May. This includes the Arrival Dinner ion the evening of the 12th May, and the Arriver Training on the 13th May. As a joint trainer of Elder Davey with Elder Brown, there are obviously several photos of Elder East. 

I've done the usual search and download from the blog so that you the reader can play along with "Find Elder East!".

The first three photos are from the Arriver's Dinner, whilst the second lot of three photos are from the Arrviers Training day.

Video Chat - 19th May 2021 - Going to the Temple For the Second Time

My connection during our video chat last P-Day kept dropping out, so I didn’t get to hear all of what was said, and as usual at the moment, it wasn’t an overly long call. The bad connection was due to us chatting earlier than our normal call time, so I was trying to connect whilst at work. The reason for the earlier call was that a number of the AAM missionaries, including Elder East, were getting the chance to go through the Adelaide Temple during the afternoon. It was going to be only the second time that Elder East will have been through the temple, so it was exciting for him. The fact that he was going to be going through with four of his previous missionary companions was an added bonus. Elissa mentioned that she was teaching about consecration in Seminary that week, and that consecration includes the consecration of ourselves and our time. She compared it to Elder East’s preparation and service as a missionary and in the temple.

Elder East mentioned that he enjoyed the Canberra Youth Fireside that he’d been asked to participate in via Zoom on Sunday evening. Besides the opportunity to speak to the Canberran youth, he also enjoyed catching up with the other Canberran missionaries at the end of the fireside.

Elder East spoke about how the number of the missionaries in the AAM didn’t seem to increase, even with the new intake of missionaries. Two Sisters had unexpectedly gone home for health reasons, with both being reassigned to serve in their home missions. Another Elder had gone home several weeks ago as well. He still had some time left on his mission, but had struggled to adjust with the reassignment from serving in his original mission in Africa, and serving back here in Australia. Elder East thinks that the Elder is regretting his choice to return home as he has called on P-Days to talk with some of the missionaries still serving in the AAM.

Some minor dot points:

• Elder East says it was cool to catch up with Elder Reeves when he stayed with them overnight during the new missionary intake. He says that Elder Reeves has injured his back though which is a concern for him at the moment.
• Elder East now thinks that he’ll continue to train Elder Davey, even if their three-way companionship is broken up at transfers.
• He said that he enjoyed catching up with me at the airport on Monday.

Video Chat - 21st April 2021 - Post Transfer Update

We got to have a longer chat with Elder East this week, which was good. The big news of course was transfers, with Elder East staying in the area but Elder Beaumont-Tafua being transferred out and Elder Brown being transferred in. 

Elder Brown was actually born in Canberra, but was raised in Brisbane – his family was only in Canberra for a short time. He is the second oldest of six kids. Prior to his mission he was doing professional cleaning. He was called to the AAM and has been out for around 6 months now. He’s a fan of games and brought several small ones out on his mission. Elders East & Brown are joint Zone Leaders over the Zone, although Elder East lamented that with the changes, there are now only 9 missionaries in the zone at the moment.

Elder East was disappointed at some of the other changes at transfers. They lost the Sister missionaries from Christies Beach. Sister Matenga was due to go home, whilst two other Sisters also went home, one unexpectedly. (Sister Hatch injured her knee and only had several months to go on her mission, so was released to recover.) That leaves only two companions of Sister Missionaries in Adelaide. Elder East says that he likes being around Sisters so it’s not as much of a “boys club” as being around Elders all of the time. The Christies Beach Sisters were working well and being productive. Elders East & Brown will now pick up the work being done by the Sisters as well as remotely covering Mount Gambier.

Elder East commented that President Ellis (Marion Stake President)  is trying to get missionaries to Kangaroo Island. There is a couple there who are interested in being baptised, but need to be taught and married first. Elder East says that they may be taking on Kangaroo Island remotely.

There will be a “mid-transfer” mini-transfer on May 12th, as there will be 5 new missionaries coming in then, out of sync to the normal transfer cycle. This means that there could still be a lot more changes in only a couple of weeks. Elder East is actually kind of disappointed that he didn’t get to Darwin as he thinks it will close soon, so he’s unlikely to serve there. He’s ended up enjoying seeing all of the different areas in Adelaide, but would like to see more outside of Adelaide itself.

Some dot point notes from the rest of our discussion:

• Elder East has broken out his big winter jacket to wear – he reckons it’s been cold over the last couple of weeks. He commented that it doesn’t tend to rain heavily in Adelaide though.
• Missionaries in the AAM will soon be allowed to go to the Adelaide temple.
• Elder East has now been companion with 3 of the 5 other Zone Leaders and Elder Kennach, who is the new AP.
• They were having a District P-Day today and were going to be playing some games together.
• With Elder East’s birthday coming up, he was buying up ingredients to try and make the family’s chili recipe.
• We ordered and sent through tickets for he and his companion to attend the local ANZAC Day Dawn Service

Video Chat - 10th March 2021 - New Companion is Elder Beaumont-Tafua

Elissa had a short chat with Elder East on Wednesday morning in regards to the death of a member of his Year 12 graduating class several days earlier. She was concerned as to how much of an impact the news may have had on Elder East. Elder East advised that he didn't really know the young man though. Still, it was sad news with the young man being in a car accident on the Monaro Highway. He was the third member of Elder East's graduating class to have passed away since graduation.

Later in the day, we got to have a short video chat whilst Elissa and I were both still at work. The big news of course was Transfers that had just happened on the Monday. Elder Taua had now returned home and Elder East has stayed in Onkaparinga Ward. His new companion is Elder Tafua (or to be correct according to the mission blog, Elder Beaumont-Tafua.) 

Elder Tafua is from Brisbane. Elder East describes him as a tall, skinny basketballer who is a jack-of-all-trades. Elder East and Elder Tafua were in the online MTC at the same time, although Elder Tafua was heading out a week later than Elder East. They were in different districts, so Elder Tafua isn't in any of the MTC screenshots that Elder East took. Elder Tafua was originally called to serve in Samoa. 

Some dot point notes from our discussion:

• Elder Taua was a bit emotional as he got ready to leave.
• Elders East & Taua were in a three-way companionship on Sunday and Monday as Elder Brown's companion was flying to Darwin for transfers and had to leave on the Sunday.
• Elder East is still a Zone Leader but is sharing the ZL duties with Elder Brown.
• Elder East discovered that Elder Stiles, the newly arrived from Canberra knows Alex Garland.
• Their teaching pool is quite large at the moment. 
• Elder East says that the Friday night sports nights have been "awesome". He didn't explain in what way they were awesome though.
• Joseph Stubbs, one of the YSAs from Canberra was in Onkaparinga Ward on Sunday. Apparently, he was there for a date. :) He gave Elder East $10 to get himself a feed at some point in the week.
• They have a trade-off scheduled on Friday (12th Mar)

Elissa showed Elder East pictures of the cowhide seat covers and other accessories that Jewel received for her birthday. These now adorn the family car that Elder East was driving before his mission.

Elder East was "horrified" at what has been done to Dannielle Devito (his name for the car.).

Video Chat - 27th January 2021 - Transferred to Onkaparinga Ward With Elder Taua

 We got to speak to Elder East slightly later this P-Day. He had earlier joined in on a district service project in helping to clean a lady’s home. Apparently, it was hard work. We even managed to get some photos of “after” the clean-up.

Elder East had also just called my parents (his paternal grandparents – Nanny and Grandad East) before calling us. They are in their nineties and in poor health and have recently made the decision to move into aged care. Nanny told me later that evening that they’d just found out that they’d received an offer of a place in a home, however, Nanny and Grandad wouldn’t be sharing a room. Nanny had become upset and depressed about this but said that she then received Elder East’s call which had raised her spirits. Elder East will be happy to learn the positive effect a simple thing like his phone call could make – even if Nanny did think that he sounded like he’d gained an American accent. 

Elder East sent us a few additional photos of the past week. The first was from Church last Sunday where a couple of recent converts (Kevin and Nicky) from the Adelaide City branch came to say hi and also had lunch with the Elders at the chapel.

There was a nice farewell photo with Elder Lwin during transfers.

The fire in the Adelaide Hills bordered Elder East's new ward so he was still able to see it on his trip down to his new area. Fortunately, heavy rains would help bring the fire under control the following day. 

Elder East says that his new area, Onkaparinga Ward, is a fairly middle-class area. There are a few “dodgy parts” but not as many as Marion or Prospect Wards. Their missionary flat is a fairly new three bedroom two bathroom, two story home. They share the ward area with the Sister Missionaries from Christie’s Beach. They’ve already met the Bishop, Ward Mission Leader, and Stake President in his first week there. He even had an impromptu dinner appointment with a family they visited who were having a barbecue. They shared a message with the family and were rewarded with the leftovers from the barbecue.

Bishop of Onkaparinga Ward

His companion is Elder Taua (pronounced like Tower) who is from Brisbane and is due to go home in 41 days (and counting :) ). Similar to his time with Elder Lwin, Elder East has been asked to help Elder Taua have a strong end to his mission. Elder East says that Elder Taua happens to know the Punou family that we knew from Tuggeranong Ward.

Elder East has had some positive news with investigators. 

• The Sister Missionaries had a baptism in the ward last Saturday, and Elder Taua got to perform the baptism. 
• An investigator in Morialta Ward that Elder East taught is scheduled to be baptised.
• They were following up with a couple who were investigating the Church. Elder East bore his testimony. He observed that the feeling of the Spirit was strong and the lady from the couple then shared her testimony about the truthfulness of the things they were being taught. 
• Two children that Elder East helped teach in Onkaparinga Ward whilst previously on trade-offs had been baptised.

Some additional dot points from our discussion

• They have started doing street contacting - ie just talking to members of the public to talk about the gospel. This hadn't been allowed during previous pandemic regulations.
• Elder East seems to be enjoying the responsibility of being a Zone Leader. He has Zone Conferences coming up that he has to start preparing some training for.
• It was only a small transfer. Elder Reeves has been transferred up to Darwin and is the Zone Leader up there.
• They are losing some of their senior missionary couples soon who often serve in smaller country branches. With the large decrease in missionaries during the pandemic, several missionary flats in country towns like Alice Springs and Mildura have been sold off. 
• Onkaparinga Ward is one of Dannielle Grant’s old wards from her mission that she enjoyed serving in.

Video Chat - 30th December 2020 - Post-Christmas Refocus

Elder East let us know that he'd had an interview with President Marquis on Monday which seemed to help explain some recent decisions. President Marquis said that he was trying to help improve the Mission's culture, especially trying to strengthen the work ethic. Elder Easts said that he was happy with how Elder East was doing but wanted him to learn to "step up". He wasn't quite sure what President meant by that, so we encouraged him to ask more questions to see how President Marquis feels Elder East can develop.

Elder East said that they had a good day on Tuesday. They were following up on people from their area book. He says that it's only a small area book and they can complete a call around in about 2 hours, but they kept on going. The last person they contacted for the day asked to be given a Priesthood blessing which they obliged with.

Elder East commented that they had been talking to one of the volunteers at the Salvation Army Christmas lunch and discovered that they had been given a Book of Mormon and had previously met with the Sister missionaries. One of the people at the lunch was also a less active member of the Church.

This coming week they have scheduled to go out into the country parts of their area. They have two appointments out Mount Pleasant way, which is a small town about 55kms east of Adelaide. They have a 600km/month limit for their car, so they have to be judicious as to how to use their driving allowance.

They are also working with a member from up in Coober Pedy. It's not in the ward boundaries, however, the member comes down to Adelaide periodically and attends Morialta Ward when in Adelaide. Elder East is trying to work out how to help the family with temple preparation lessons.

Their Christmas dinner was good, but the food only lasted a day. They also gave some of their spare food to the Elders in Firle Ward, so didn't end up going to give out food to some less active members like they'd originally planned. We commented that their Christmas dinner was a combination of the two traditions - baked ham and veges from him, whilst the prawns, mussels, and potato salad was a typical Christmas dinner for his companions. Elder East says that he has also cooked up a stroganoff for his companionship as well which his companions seemed to like.

Elder East is working out how to try and increase the trust of the members in the missionaries in the ward. Elder Naelsoni had a cousin visiting Adelaide from Melbourne over Christmas who happened to visit Church with them on the Sunday. The Bishop excitedly came down to meet him, thinking it was an investigator. Elder East is thinking that getting somebody along to attend Church will be a good way. They're still not really getting any meals with members. We did have a chat about different ways to try and work with and gain trust from members.

Elissa had a bunch of questions she asked Elder East. Here are the questions and answers:

• Best quality of your current companions? Both are very loving. Elder Nalesoni can act a bit weird/funny sometimes but Elder East says he gets away with it as a part of his big Polynesian persona. Elder Aiho has a lot of good missionary knowledge and experience.
• What is he currently studying? He did a lot fo study about Christ's birth in preparation for his possible Mission Conference talk, but has also been studying the Anti-Nephi-Lehis in Alma. He's also been doing some study around Joseph Smith's transition of the Bible.
• What was his favourite Zone Conference talk? He liked Elder Rogers' talk. He is one of 9 siblings, talking about that and making an analogy of the Light of Christ and comparing it to the Star being put on a Christmas Tree. 
• Was there anything that particularly made you laugh or sad this week? It was generally a fun week which was good.  He is feeling a little homesick - not so much missing us, but some of the things we'd do together. (eg play games such as Unfair, watch Star Wars) especially around Christmas time.
• Do they have any particular restrictions around New year's Eve? No - just usual mission rules - be back in the flat by 9pm and in bed by 10:30pm.

Video Chat - 4th November 2020 - Transfer to Marion As DL With Elder Tukukino

Elder East contacted us on P-Day morning to arrange a time for our weekly video chat, We got a glimpse of the fact that he had a new companion - Elder Tukukino. He joked that he was Japanese ... Elder Tukukino is in fact from the Gold Coast with a New Zealand background.

We received an email from President Marquis later on Wednesday afternoon telling us that Elder East had been called as the District Leader over the Marion District, so we looked forward to hearing more about everything that had gone on. 

So, the big news was, yes, Elder East had been transferred from Prospect Ward to Marion Ward, which is in the south-western part of Adelaide. His new companion is Elder Tukukino. Elder Tukukino has been out on his mission for fourteen months. He was originally called to serve in the Zimbabwe Bullawayo Mission and did so for eight months before being repatriated to Australia because of the pandemic. He arrived in the Australia Adelaide Mission only about two weeks before Elder East arrived. Elder Tukukino has served as a Zone Leader before over Elder East and is quite "stoked" to now have Elder East as his companion/District Leader and not being the one with "responsibility". 

Elder East says that their new flat is quite nice and big, but was left in a mess by the previous missionaries. The previous Elders in the Ward were "Member Missionaries", that is, Islanders who had been repatriated from other missions, mainly in Africa, because of the pandemic. The repatriated missionaries were unable to return back to their home countries because the various Pacific islands had completely closed their borders, so the missionaries were kind of in limbo in Australia. They were unable to proselyte in Australia because of their visa types and so they were assigned to Australian missions to work with the Church members rather than proselyte. 

Unfortunately, not all of the "Member Missionaries" adjusted well to their new roles and new missions and struggled to abide by the mission rules. Elder East says that part of their role coming into the ward is to "clean up" after the previous missionaries and regain the trust of the members. He said that they've already met the Ward Mission leader who Elder East said seems "amazing."

Elder East says that there a number of investigators already in the Ward, which is positive. They also have food in their flat, another positive. They have a car - the only silver-coloured car in the mission - another positive. They don't have a garage for their car, just a small parking spot - a small negative.

Elder Kennach was transferred to the Adelaide City Branch where he will be the District Leader. They were sad to be leaving Prospect - they had had a good week, adding seven new people to their teaching pool and teaching four lessons, but they say they've been replaced by good Elders.

As the District leader for Marion District, Elder East is responsible for five companionships (ten missionaries). He is meant to call each companionship every evening to find out how they're doing as well as getting some "key indicator" stats for the mission. He also has to run regular District Council meetings,. which are 60-90 minutes long. The first one was scheduled for the following day (Thursday), so he was a bit nervous about that.

Elder East mentioned that the Marion District includes the following:

• Elder Reeves, who will be training the only new missionary coming in this transfer. 
• Two Filipinos, with the rest coming from New South Wales and Queensland.
• There is a companionship with two sister missionaries.
• One of the sister missionaries is Sister Hall, the MTC companion of Sister Abel, another missionary serving from Elder east's home Ward.
• Two missionaries from the district will be going home next transfer.
• Elder East's companion during quarantine, Elder Nalesoni is in the district.

Some dot points of other items discussed:

• Elder East was wearing his Mandarin name tag as he couldn't find the magnet that holds his normal badge on.
• The roads out in Marion are better to drive on than they were in Prospect, so he's not quite as concerned with driving.
• They had a meal appointment with the second counselor in the Stake Presidency.
• Elder East was disappointed to learn that Sean Connery had passed away.
• When introducing himself, he says he's from Canberra, but his family is from Perth, so he has some redeeming qualities.
• He's looking forward to getting more chances to talk with Elder Reeves. 
• Elder Tukukino doesn't have a phone, so they'll be relying on Elder East's phone.
• As per standard missionary procedure, they were at a chapel (Onkaparinga Ward) for P-Day, playing sport.