Video Chat - 11th November 2020 - Excited About Marion Ward

Elder East took a break from the Elders learning a dance on P-day to video chat with us last Wednesday. (I didn't catch why they were learning a dance - not the type of thing missionaries usually do. Maybe it was something more like a haka or similar given the high proportion of Polynesians in the mission,) The district had originally planned to be playing ultimate frisbee, but the weather had turned bad.

Elder East is quite excited in his new ward - Marion Ward. The ward seems strong - they had around 150 at church the preceding week and Elder East says that their Ward Mission Leader is "amazing". The Ward Mission Leader is a returned missionary from Germany and apparently has a number of plans for missionary work in the ward.

Elder East said that Sacrament meeting itself was really good. He got to bear his testimony as a part of the meeting. They even had one of their investigators turn up to the chapel; ... unfortunately 30 minutes after Sacrament had ended, but they still managed to end up teaching them. Elder East says they have a lot of lessons lined up in the coming week.

They had two meal appointments during the week. :) Neither of them had cats. :( The first dinner appointment was with the second counselor in the Stake Presidency and his family. The counselor remembers a Sister Travers serving in the ward, but there were two Sister Travers serving in the AAM when Dannielle was there, so unsure if it was Sister Dannielle Travers or not.

The other meal was with the Davisons - the Elder's Quorum President and his family. It turns out there was a connection there too - they're related to the Davisons that we know in Sydney. 

Elder East held his first District Council meeting last week, which he had been stressing about. He said that it went short, and he didn't actually do very much, but hopefully it has helped break any concerns he had about having to run meetings in a leadership position.

I asked about how he was handling the nightly calls with companionships in the district, but apparently, he doesn't need to call them, it's just a text message of what's happened throughout the day. Again, not quite as stressful as he thought it would be. He says that Elder Brown, the brand new greenie being trained by Elder Reeves is stressed but doing well. Elder Easts says that Elder Brown comes from a game playing family, so they've got some common interests that they share.

On a personal note, we let him know that there were two packages coming his way. The first containing some Magic The Gathering cards that he was after for P-days, and the second containing advent calendars (and treats) for him and his companion. We asked if there was anything he wants for Christmas. He replied that he'd be interested in some nice P-Day clothes - he didn't take much in the way of non-proselyting clothing. We may end up getting him some vouchers to clothing stores given the difficulty in getting the correct size remotely. We'll see.

And on a side note, it was no real surprise to see that Elder East and Elder Reeves appeared to be hanging out together on P-Day. They seem to have formed a good friendship.

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. 

Elder East Becomes a District Leader

We received the following email earlier today:

Dear family and friends of Elder East:

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that your missionary, Elder Seth East, has just been called to serve as the Marion District Leader in the Marion Zone of the Australia Adelaide Mission.

This represents a significant accomplishment on his part and I am sure you are as proud of him as I am.  He will fulfill a very important stewardship as he accepts responsibility to lead his district in this mission.  Future leadership opportunities in family, church and career will be enhanced by this great experience he will have.  

We are most grateful to you for helping to prepare your son to take on this very important responsibility in the Lord’s army.  Please join me in congratulating Elder East and in providing continuing encouragement in the future.  We love him and are blessed by his service in this mission.

With love and appreciation,

 President Derek A. Marquis

Australia Adelaide Mission

We have a video chat with Elder East scheduled for later today, so obviously we'll find out more about this then.