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 - 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.

Transfer Photos - 1st June 2021

The AAM Blog updated with photos of the missionary transfer that happened on Tuesday 1st June. These photos went up before we'd spoken to Elder East on P-Day the following day, so we saw pictures of him at the transfer, but didn't know if he'd been transferred to a new area or had a change in companion(s) ot otherwise affected by transfers. The fact that he was physically at the transfer meeting tends to suggest he was somehow affected.

Elissa was happy to see that Elder East had received the package with the winter coat that he was after.

It's not that hard to play "Where's Elder East?" in these photos. Whilst almost every other missionary is in thick jackets to keep warm, Elder East is there in just a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves ...

The first photo is the Zoom meeting on the previous night letting the missionaries know what was happening.

The rest of the photos are from transfer day itself.

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.

Adelaide Airport Lunch with Dad - 17th May 2021

I emailed President Marquis prior to recently going over to Western Australia, requesting:

President Marquis,

I will be flying between Perth and Canberra on Monday 17th May and will have a 4.5hr stopover in Adelaide between 11:30am and 4pm. 

Would it be possible for me to catch up with Elder East and his companions and to take them to a short lunch (assuming he is still in Adelaide post the 12th May missionary intake)?

I understand if it’s not allowed, but thought I would ask and see if it was possible. 

Thanks for all you are doing for Elder East and the other missionaries,

President Marquis responded back:

Thank you for reaching out. I’m sure a short “reunion” at the airport would be a boost to Elder East. If he does not feel it would be a distraction, I’m happy to have him meet you at the airport. There are restaurants in the airport terminal and there is also one just off the main baggage claim area in the Atura Hotel which is connected to the airport. I’ll leave it to you to talk with him about this and to coordinate the details. I do not know yet whether he will be impacted by the transfer next week but it is the case that even if he were, he’d still be serving in Adelaide as all our outlying areas are currently closed except Darwin and I do not anticipate any changes in Darwin on 12 May.

Sister Marquis and I love Elder East and are grateful to you and Sister East for raising up such a valiant and noble son. He is a true blessing to the AAM.

Following the approval from President Marquis, we arranged to meet up at the airport at noon on Monday 17th May.

I arrived at Adelaide Airport from Perth about 11:30am on the Monday morning, and received a message from Elder East just after noon that they had arrived. We quickly found each other and I was introduced to his two companions - Elder Brown, and his new trainee, Elder Davey from Rockhampton in Queensland.

I treated all three to a lunch of gourmet salads from Soul Origin at the Airport and we spent our time chatting. Whilst in Perth I had grabbed a bunch of Magic The Gathering booster packs as a gift for Elder East. I know that he often plays the game with other missionaries during their spare time on P Days. He was quite happy with what I'd bought him.

It was great seeing Elder East. He looks like he's lost some of the weight that he'd put on - he is trying to be conscious of his health. More importantly, he carried the Spirit with him and he sounded and acted like somebody who has been set apart as one representing the Saviour Jesus Christ and who is there to serve others.

It was great to spend time seeing him again after 11 months. It was only an hour of time spent with him and his companions, but it was an awesome time to treasure until we see him in person again in mid-2022.