Video Chat - 27th September 2021 - Territory Wildlife Park and Bad News About Nanny

We had received the news on the Sunday night that Elder East's paternal grandmother had been put into palliative care and was only expected to last a day or two before passing. We notified the mission office about the circumstances and advised that we'd be letting Elder East know on P Day. We didn't want to delay notifying him in case she passed away quickly, we wanted him to be prepared. 

Contacting him early on P Day, he told us he wasn't free to speak at the time. The Senior Missionary couple was taking the Elders and four of their grandkids to the Territory Wildlife Park. The park is a natural habitat zoo in Berry Springs, about 45 minutes south of Darwin and they were currently on their way driving to the Park.

Once they arrived at the Park we were able to have a quick call and let Elder East know about his grandmother. We know that it's something he would want to silently contemplate through the day.

The Park that they were visiting was essentially a big zoo that showcases the NT environments The Park featured a forest, wetlands, a coastal exhibit, a nocturnal house, a lagoon, an aviary and even an aquarium.  Elder East particularly liked the Birds of Prey show that showcased eagles but also included other large birds such as emus and storks. He said that the show included an eagle that cracked open an egg using a rock, a little-known natural behavior for the eagle in the wild which the show highlights. 

Elder East sent us through a few photos from the day.

Going back over the events of the week, the Elders flew back from Alice Springs on Tuesday (21st Sep) morning after which they then met up with Elder East's Great Uncle Ross who was visiting Darwin. They went out for lunch at a nearby burger joint.  He said it was good meeting up with Uncle Ross. The rest of Tuesday involved catching up with P Day activities like shopping that they weren't able to do due to still being in Alice Springs.

Elder East had his second covid vaccine shot on Thursday (23rd Sep). He was fortunate not to get too serious side effects but was very tired on Friday. Elder Roberts was scheduled to have his second covid vaccination on Saturday (2nd Oct).

On Thursday evening they attended the Branch Coordination Council. Afterward, when heading to their car they had an inebriated local approach them wanting them to drive him home about 20-30 minutes away. Missionaries aren't allowed to take other people in their cars so they politely declined. The local then wanted money for food.  They said that they would go get him some at which point he tried to get into their car. They politely stopped him from doing so and then left and got him some McDonalds. When they returned with food for him he seemed surprised that they'd actually returned. 

Friday was spent Zooming in to the Missionary Leadership Council that was being held down in Adelaide. 

On Saturday they provided some service to a less-active member by mowing their lawn. They ere pleasantly surprised when the member turned up to Church the following day.

On Saturday evening the two branches held a combined pot luck dinner and dance which the missionaries from both branches attended. One of their investigators attended the evening as they'd been invited by a member friend. Elder East said that he danced with a number of the elderly ladies during the evening, as well as joining in the Nutbush

Some other dot points from our discussion:

• The Elders bought a Magic The Gathering card collection from somebody they were working with which they'll split between themselves. 
• After having been good for a long time, they've eaten a lot of fast food over the last couple of weeks. Elder East says on the plus side that he now has enough winning stickers from the McDonald's Monopoly promotion that he doesn't have to pay next time they go to McDonalds. 
• His trainer Elder De Guzman managed to get home during the week, presumably on an out-of-cycle repatriation flight back home to the  Philippines. Elder East was disappointed he wasn't able to farewell him.
• We spent a bit of time talking about how Nanny (his grandmother) was doing and how her health had deteriorated over the last week.
• Transfers is next week and he thinks he'll likely be transferred. 
• The Elders did a short video which was shared on the mission social media pages during the week. They filmed the video down in Alice Springs.

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 - 23rd September 2020 - He's Staying ... Nope, He's Going

We messaged Elder East on Monday evening with just a quick "Any news on transfers?" message, knowing that they were meant to be announced that day. Later in the evening, he responded, advising that he was staying in the city, but that Elder De Guzman was being transferred out. Elder Roberts, one of the other Elders in the district would be joining Elders East and Kennach to form another three-way companionship. The Branch would also be getting sisters - Sister Thom who would be training a  Mandarin-speaking greenie.

On Wednesday morning we messaged each other to arrange a time to talk, which would end up being after lunch. He also sent through the following photo that he'd taken the previous evening.

We then spoke on Wednesday afternoon. Elder East was happy with the companionship changes. He was happy to be staying in the city and said that the companionship responsibilities for the other two were a bit more balanced/equal. Elder Kennach would be mainly training Elder East, whilst Elder Roberts focused on District Leader responsibilities.

Elder East gave us a bit of a rundown about his busy last week. Last Thursday first up involved a flat inspection which they passed, followed by a District Council, and then a Zoom meeting for training in the EdApp - a new training tool for missionaries.

On Friday morning they had the second part of their "Arrivers training" for new missionaries. Normally it would be just a specific intake that would receive the training, but because of the schedule havoc that quarantine and border changes had caused, the training featured three intake groups - two from July and one from August. That means he got to catch up with Elder Reeves again  After the arrivers training, both Elder East and Elder De Guzman then went on a day and a half long trade-off with the APs (ie Assistants to the President).

Elder East enjoyed the trade-offs with the APs. He got to his first dinner appointment in a member's home - the Tehini family - on the Friday night. The family had previously lived in Canberra and attended Woden Ward. Brother Tehini figured out who Elder East was, remembering me from my time as a Ward Advisor as well as the rest of the family. What was even funnier was that they had a friend come over for some help during the evening, a Sister Coxon, who just happened to be related to somebody we know in Canberra as well.

Elder East got to take part in teaching two lessons whilst on trade-offs - one over the phone, and one in person. He said the in-person one was interesting. It was the non-member husband of a sister from Church. Elder East reckoned that he was like an atheist version of me - knowledgeable but stubborn. They did some planning beforehand for the lessons which is something his companionship hadn't done yet and which he quite enjoyed, He's wanting to do that more in his own companionship.

On Sunday, their Hungarian investigator bought his mum to church. She is actually a less-active member but it is many years since she had been to church. She doesn't speak much English so there was a lot of translation going on. Elder East was very happy with how their investigator is progressing.

They found out that Elder De Guzman would be leaving on Monday afternoon and the actual full details of transfers on the Monday evening.

On the Tuesday morning, they had a small meeting with some of the recent converts to allow Elder De Guzman to say goodbye, before the actual transfers on Tuesday afternoon.

Elder East said that transfers were hectic. Only several hours before transfers, the mission received news that eight of the Samoan Elders were about to get flights home and needed to go into quarantine, which disrupted the planned transfers.

In regards to the Sisters coming into the branch, Elder East was a bit apprehensive. Apparently, Sister Thom is known as being overly strict. Keeping the rules isn't a problem for Elder East, but there are a lot of special rules (8 pages worth!) that apply just to the city area. Elder east says that these rules have been relaxed a bit because of the impact of the pandemic, but he's concerned that the sisters will try going by the "old" rules and that there will be some friction.  Elder & Sister companionships aren't meant to be alone together so having sisters in the branch causes a lot more logistical issues when there is more than one companionship about.

Elder East spoke about the fact that he's been studying President nelson's talks since he was called as an apostle, and has been really enjoying them. Two that have stood out to him so far were 'Cutting the Spiritual Powerline" and Joy Cometh In The Morning". It was great to see him enjoying his study of the words of the Prophet.

Jayde (Elder Easts's sister) then joined us for the video chat and we talked about a number of things, such as how her work and health are going, her studies (in particular music and its effect on mental health), and games. Elder East talked about playing Ultimate Werwolf with missionaries and members on P-Days, whilst Jayde talked about Among Us, a similar hidden role game with an alien theme that she plays with her friends. That's probably the first chat Edler East has had with Jayde since she moved down to Melbourne several years ago.

A quick list of dot points that were spoken about:

• There's a food court nearby the chapel that offers $5 Asian lunches that aren't very good, but which are cheap.
• After Jayde spoke of her pot plants, Elder East said he misses plants - I presume he means being involved in gardening and the plants around our home.
• Jayde showed a video of a cat she came across that reminded her of our old cat Nephi. Elder East lamented he still hasn't gotten to see any cats, but then again, they're usually bussing to places and not walking very often. The only place they tend to walk is to the local shops.
• We realised that we all had the same culinary problem. Neither Elder East, Jayde, or I have been able to find the nacho topping that we all like to use to make our family nachos recipe. 
• Elder Easts needs to ensure he votes in the upcoming ACT territory election.
• There is going to be a virtual Mission Tour during the 1st full week of October, so P-Day that week will be on Monday (5th October). That will be whilst Kendall Reeves is staying with us to visit Jewel.
• The October General Conference is being broadcast on TV in Adelaide so Elder East has invited some of their investigators to watch it when it is on.
• Jayde gave us a mini-tour of her apartment (it's only a studio apartment, so the tour took about 45 seconds to complete.) She showed us the Melbourne CBD skyline from her window, following which Elder East showed the Adelaide CBD skyline from the chapel window he was at.

Addendum: The Late Call

Whilst Jewel and I were at the chapel for the Young Women's activity on Wednesday evening, Elder East sent through a text message saying he was being transferred. We quickly set up a video chat with Mum, Jewel, Elder East and I.

It turns out the eight Samoan missionaries going into quarantine for repatriation weren't the only last-minute change to transfers. Changes to the state borders meant that the six missionaries who flew in at transfers no longer had to go into quarantine, and there were now further changes required. Elder East and Elder Kennach were going to be transferred as a companionship out of the Adelaide City Branch and out to Prospect Ward, Elder Kennach's previous area.

Elder East was sad about the transfer. He had wanted to stay in the Adelaide City Branch and to continue working with the investigators he had. He was happy with the three-way companionship with Elder Kennach and Elder Roberts. Prospect Ward is a bit more of an affluent area as well, which tends to make it a harder area for missionary work. We encouraged him to gain a testimony that that's where Heavenly Father wants him to serve at this time, and to understand and recognise that there will be somebody who will gain from this. Whether it is for him, his companion, investigators, members or somebody else. He will be there for a reason. He just needs to learn to align his will to The Lord's and look for the opportunities.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that they will have a car in their new area, and Elder East is the designated driver. He's very nervous about that and is a bit scared of driving in a city that he doesn't know and is bigger than what he's used to.

EdApp and Arriver #2 Training - 17th-18th September 2020

 The AAM Blog has been updated this week with several posts with photos of Elder East. They don't have specific dates mentioned of when they occurred, so we'll need to ask Elder East during our next P-Day chat.

The first event was training in an application called EdApp. This is for missionaries to install on their smartphones to do "microlearning" courses. It appeared that the training in how to use EdApp was done via Zoom.

The second post was about the Second part of Training for newly arrived missionaries. Because of the unpredictable way missionaries have been brought in due to the pandemic, the training featured 26 new missionaries who had come in over three separate recent "intakes". 

We noticed that Elder East and Elder Reeves often seem to be within talking distance

We thought we'd upload a copy of this photo as it has both of Elder East's current companions, Elder De Guzman and Elder Kennach.

Video Chat - 19th August 2020 - 29 Months and Done

We held our weekly video chat a bit earlier today as Elder East’s district had scheduled to go to an Escape Room during the afternoon.  Mum dialed in from work whilst Dad dialed in from home. Elder East was feeling a bit better in regards to adjusting to having to live around somebody who does things differently to how he does.

The news that Elder East was excited to tell us about was that Elder Bataar was going home to Mongolia. Mongolia had completely closed their borders as a result of the pandemic, and Elder Bataar had been unable to go home and was now heading towards 29 months on his mission. Apparently, the Grants, the senior missionary couple in the AAM office, had developed a good relationship with those in the Mongolian embassy, and Elder Bataar was one of only 30 Mongolian ex-pats who were chosen to be repatriated.  The district held a mini-farewell party at the chapel on Tuesday afternoon along with a couple of investigators. Elder East said that one of the investigators reminded him of Jayde in personality.

Elders East & De Guzman finally finished making phonecalls to previous investigators from their area book this week. Elder East doesn’t think they’re having much success using this method, but there aren't a lot of other finding options at the moment. Only about a third of people answer their phone calls, and they have had a couple of rude/abusive responses. We’d commented that he still seemed to be teaching a lot, so he went through how many lessons they’d taught in the last week. Unfortunately, the three appointments they had for last Wednesday evening all fell through. They taught a lesson to a member on Thursday but didn’t teach any lessons on Friday. There were another two lessons on Saturday, but none on Sunday or Monday, and another two on Tuesday. They had a lesson scheduled for just after our video chat at 1:30pm.

He commented that most of their investigators are students, and of those that are in the country, it's currently a busy time for them at university. The word from other missionaries though is that investigators in the Adelaide City branch are more "chill" than those in the rest of Adelaide. When we asked what that meant, he said that missionaries sometimes encounter "weirder and angrier" people in suburbia.

Sunday attendances at the branch are still small - leaders, missionaries, several couples, and several new converts. One of those in attendance was a backpacker from Belgium. The branch has started up Sunday School classes again as a part of the Sunday meetings. Last Sunday they talked about the Stripling Warriors and Elder East drew upon a lot of the seminary lessons that Mum had sent to him during the week. He said that one of the speakers during Sacrament was one of Elder De Guzman's converts who shared his conversion experience.

Elder East and Elder De Guzman have started going on runs in the morning as part of an exercise routine. They go for a 15-20 minute run past a nursing home and down to the Firle Chapel and Mission Home before doing the 15-20 min run back. Apparently Elder East was a bit self-conscious of trying to exercise in front of his companion in the flat, so he's happy that they're exercising together. We asked if they go anywhere near the Temple but it's apparently in a different direction.

He commented that his clothes were getting a bit tight in a few places. He wasn't sure if he was gaining muscle or putting on weight. Mum queried "where?" - he commented his shirts were tight around the chest. Mum then asked if he was doing any weight training - he said no. Mum commented it's probably not muscle then ... He has been doing a lot of push-ups so it could actually be muscle.

In regards to going to the Temple, Elder & Sister Grant have dropped off a Church booklet for him called Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple. His Mission President has said he'll arrange for a Temple Recommend interview, but they're still waiting on details of when they will be going.

Some other dot points from our conversation:

• President Marquis is trying to reply to each email/letter he sends to him (Missionaries are meant to write to their Mission President each week.)
• The bank that has his mission funds is The Bank of America. He finds that their debit card doesn't work a lot.
• He has only encountered one cat so far, and it ran away
• He received his package with his new set of scriptures, as well as treats from Mum and a Subway voucher.
• They tend to shop weekly, but do a large shop one week, then a smaller shop for perishables the following week. 
• He was unsuccessful in making himself a decent ham & cheese toasted sandwich using a frying pan. We did point out that sandwich toasters aren't that expensive.
• No meals from the members during the week
• Next Monday there is meant to be an Australia-wider Zone Conference with a member of the Seventy in attendance.
• Elder East enjoyed watching Minori during the videochat - she had decided that she was going to head-bump and rub herself all over Dad's phone at one point during the video chat.
• He gave us a virtual tour of the Adelaide City Branch chapel.
• He has received a new name tag - in Mandarin!

Video Chat - 12th August 2020 - Learning to Adjust

Elder East said that we probably won't get an email from him this week, so I took notes during our weekly family video chat.

He started out by saying that he might only show his mouth in the video. He had just gotten himself a haircut that he wasn’t happy with and didn't want to show his whole head. It was shorter on top than Mum usually does it, but it didn’t look too bad.

The first bit of conversation was about Mum’s car accident as we’d just gotten the news that Jelly Bean (her car) was being written off and that Mum was now driving around Danielle Devito (his car). Elder East did give Mum some little tips about his old car … like not locking the driver’s door when in the car as it doesn’t unlock from the inside and you have to then climb out the passenger’s side. (Note: Not sure why he didn’t just wind down the driver’s door window and open it that way.]

The major theme of the chat was that Elder East is having trouble adjusting to his new companion.  There's nothing of a serious nature, just getting used to people who do things differently. Elder De Guzman likes to have three cooked meals a day, most with rice, whilst Elder East would typically just have an apple for breakfast and maybe a sandwich for lunch. It’s frustrating for Elder East in that in his view all of the cooked meals result in a lot of extra cleaning that needs to be done, and a lot of extra time traveling to and from their flat.

Their typical day consists of leaving the flat at 10am, traveling to the chapel by bus to work, bussing back to the flat for lunch, bussing back to the chapel for more work, and then bussing back in the evening.

At the chapel, they spend a lot of time calling through old investigators in the area books. They actually seem to be doing not too bad in that regard. He said that they had 3 appointments scheduled for that evening, had taught 2 lessons on Monday and 4 lessons on Tuesday. He'd taught a couple of the lessons with Elder Roberts as Elder De Guzman had been playing the piano whilst Elder East was making calls to investigators. We commented that he was teaching far more than we typically did on our missions.

They've only had a single meal with a member so far. He took them out to a claypot dinner in Chinatown. The one he had wanted to take them too wasn't available so they tried a different one, which ended up being a lot more expensive than he'd planned. The bill came to $140. The member had intended to pay for the missionaries, but he only had $100. Elder De Guzman didn't have any money, so Elder East ended up paying the other $40.

Elder East mentioned that he and Elder De Guzman need to work on how the training is going to operate. Elder De Guzman is very much of the opinion that Elder East will learn by doing things as he goes, whereas Elder East prefers to learn about how to do things beforehand before putting them into practice. They obviously need to work about how make Elder East's training more effective.

We talked about how the Adelaide Temple would be opening up so that he would be able to go the Temple for the first time (as opposed to just the baptistery.) We had asked the Mission President several months ago about whether we might be able to come over when that occurred to help assist. President Marquis was fine with that, but the shut borders mean that that's no longer an option. Instead, we've ordered the clothes he needs for the temple from the Sydney Distribution Centre. We did need some assistance from Sister Grant in the Mission Office who went and helped get some measurements from Elder East.

A few other minor points:

• Sister Abel from Stromlo Ward had an MTC companion who is about to transfer into the AAM, so she's been told to keep an eye out for Elder Seth.
• Elder East has bought some new, mission-rule-compliant plain socks to replace the picture socks that Mum had gotten for him.
• We talked about the kayaker who died earlier in the week down at Point Hut Crossing, just down the road from home.
• Elder East was planning to email Alex G, Grandma and Kendall R. We noted that we weren't a part of the list that was going to get an email.

Video Chat - 05th August 2020 - Adelaide City Branch

Some additional notes from the video char we had with Elder East on P-Day, Wednesday 5th August.

Elder East clarified that his companion is Elder De Guzman. In the AAM blog, the photos of the new missionaries and their trainers had Elder East listed as being with Elder Narag. He doesn't know Elder Narag at all. Elder De Guzman is from the Philippines and has been out for about eight months (he came into the field in Dec 2019.) English isn't his first language so there are sometimes some communication issues but they're getting along fine. Elder De Guzman has been Zone Leader for the past 4 months. Elder East says that Elder De Guzman is a good cook.

Their flat is a single-story apartment in the suburb of Evandale and is quite old and rundown. Apparently, they enter their flat via the backdoor because they're worried that if they use the front door it will break.

They don't have a car or bike at all and rely on public transport to get around. He said that isn't bad, although kind of awkward when trying to bring back groceries.

The City Branch area used to have eight missionary companionships, however because of the reduction in missionaries associated with the pandemic, it's now just them and one other companionship. The other companionship is Elder Baraat and Elder Roberts. Elder Baraat is Elder De Guzman's previous companion who is from Mongolia and who's been out for 28 months now because he can't go home. Elder Roberts is the Maori elder who was in quarantine with Elder East.

They're doing most of their work by going through the old area books - which is handy as they have 4 area books to be able to use. Because of the pandemic, missionaries are unable to do much in the way of public contacting, and can't just visit members uninvited. They only had just over 20 members at Church on Sunday - by the sounds of it, a lot of the ward list are international students that haven't been able to return because of the pandemic, or which they've lost contact with, so working with members may be rather limited.

They had however already managed to teach two discussions - one over the phone, and one in person. Another consequence of the pandemic is that they do most of their teaching appointments at the chapel, so they are regularly there.

Elder East commented that he preferred the discussion they taught over the phone rather than the one in person. He's still lacking a lot of confidence in his teaching skills and ability to work with other Elders whilst teaching. They apparently had another two teaching appointments after dinner on P-Day, so it sounds like they're at last getting good opportunities to teach.

There were two photos from Elder East that I didn't include in the email post, and they were of the derposaurs at Morialta Falls on their first day out of quarantine with President Marquis. I've merged the two photos together to produce the following image.

Email Home - 05th August 2020 - Trainer and First Area

Here's the email we received from Elder East on Wednesday 5th August 2020:
Clarifications or notes that have been inserted by Adam are in [square brackets].

This week I have been transferred to the [Adelaide] City Branch area with Elder De Guzman as my trainer.

Apparently Elders assigned to the City area often stay there a while and may [frequently] spend some time up in Darwin. The City Branch is also a Chinese speaking area however [attendance is low] because of the Covid restrictions. Many members are stuck back in their home countries like China or Hong Kong. The City Branch takes up an entire floor in an office building in the city. The entire seventh floor to be precise. Although the missionaries normally assigned to the City Branch are Chinese speaking I don't have to learn it thankfully, though if I spend long here I may end up learning some anyway.

On the bus ride from our flat to [the chapel] (where we do all our work), we pass by four churches, the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, the SA Museum, the SA Art Gallery, the SA State Library, and [the Freemason's] Grand Lodge. And just across the street from the [chapel] is the Adelaide War Memorial (or at least one part of it). You can see it from the [chapel] window which is awesome.

One of the missionaries in quarantine with me was assigned to the City Branch as well but with a different companion so I'll still see him every day.

We had an in-person Zone Conference this Monday which had all the missionaries come together for. It was great to hear from Pres Marquis and to hear and see all of the presentations made for us. We did a musical item that I'm sure Pres will release in a while. I was able to see all of the quarantine missionaries there as well which was great to catch up with them.

In the field, I've gotten a couple of clarifications of rules from my companion. I'm not supposed to use Messenger at all unless it's on P-day with family or it's with investigators. So it's best if you email me during the week instead. Another clarification I've had is that I'm only supposed to have plain socks so all of my socks are unfit to wear :(

[In response to finding out that the heater under Jewel's desk had caught fire] That's what Jewel gets for putting the heater under her desk, that place was a safety hazard since day one.

[In response to both Dad and Jewel being sick] Sending my love home to Dad and Jewel hoping that they get better from their sicknesses.

[In response to news about increasing Covid restrictions in Victoria] I heard Melbourne had introduced curfew but I didn't know it was that bad. Rumor has it (rumor because we don't have news) that SA is bringing back a lot of restrictions because we're getting a handful of cases, only 15 or so but it's enough.

[About keeping in touch with his friend, Alex, back in Canberra] I'll be sending Alex an email today, don't worry.

[About the fact that Elissa and Elder Reeves' Mum have struck up a friendship] It's great that you and Sister Reeves have been talking a lot. It was funny in quarantine because Elder Reeves and I would talk a lot then we'd both talk back home to Kendall and then we'd talk back home to our respective parents who would talk to each other. We were/are getting pretty involved with each other's family.

I'll talk more about my companion in a sec. But Elder Reeves trio seems a lot more chill and less strict than my companionship for sure. The hike though was pretty amazing, we saw a bunch of koalas closer than I've ever seen and so close to humans as well. Photos in drive.

I talked to a guy [at Church] who said he was told to look out for me and he blessed the sacrament while I passed. Thanks for sending the word out.

My companion is alright, he is a zone leader as well as being a trainer so he's got a lot on his plate. And while he's doing both as best as he can I don't think he wants to be either. Especially as he's been a zone leader for 4 transfers. But he's an excellent missionary and we've had some great moments during study together and he's a great cook.

I had an interview with my Pres Marquis last Friday right before the transfer on Saturday, he is an awesome guy and so far I keep loving everything he does for us more and more.

Also thanks for the insights from your seminary class, I won't respond to them but I love reading them.

A response to last week's email: (half-written quite a while later).

South Australia has a mandatory 12th day Covid test, so all 5 of us got tested on the second Tuesday of quarantine. It was a 40-minute drive to the testing centre and an hour and a half wait. Thankfully the test was short but by the time we got back to our flat, we'd spent half of the day out already. None of us have Covid but three of us got tested in the same room so we had fun laughing at each other's pain, I actually took the test the best and barely had a reaction. As being written we don't know exactly when quarantine ends but it's either Friday or Saturday. (The quarantine ended on Friday but we got our new companionships and areas on Saturday)

I did get my shoes - thank you - and thank you especially for the hot chocolate, I've waited 'til out of quarantine to enjoy them the most.

We got Elder Reeves package last Thursday, and it's amazing. The cookies look and taste amazing! (Photos in drive)

Pancakes did turn out pretty good in the end. We had them a couple times and they were always good. The quality of meals in quarantine slowly decayed until the end when we got KFC.
Bread Nachos is bread with oil, taco mix seasoning, and cheese on top of bread put in the oven for 5 minutes, and it's really good. Elder Reeves and I created that last Monday in quarantine when we mistakenly thought we were getting our groceries that day.

The mission/zone conference was just an announcement that we're limited to 10 hours of service each week and only 2 hours of service for members.

Love from, Elder East.

Transfers and Trainers - Elder De Guzman

The AAM blog has updated with details of the transfers. Check it out for more photos and details.

The morning after quarantine finished, President Marquis took the five quarantining Elders out for a hike in Morialta Conservation Park.

Then they had lunch at the Mission home before being assigned to their trainers/companions.

 Then it was time to meet their trainers/companions and head off to their first areas.

Elder East's trainer is Elder De Guzman. He is from the Philippines and arrived in the AAM back in December 2019. [Note 06/08/20: The AAM website photo was captioned as Elder Narag and Elder East together, so we thought Elder Narag was his trainer, but it's actually Elder  De Guzman. I've changed the blog title and references in here to reflect this.]