Video Call - 16th May 2022 - Elder East's Final Zone Conference

Another rundown of Elder East's week in the mission field. On the evening of the previous P Day, the APs went over to the Travers family in Firle Ward. Whilst there, they were presented with a belated birthday cake for both of them. The Travers were originally going to be providing Elder East a cake on his birthday until the Covid isolation intervened.

Elder East also took a photo of their cat. He's a doppelganger of our cat Matt Matt back home.

On Tuesday they had a Stake Missionary Correlation Meeting as well as spent a lot of time in the Mission Office. They were able to teach a lesson to a man and his children in the afternoon. The same family would end up coming along to Church on Sunday which was a great step for them to take.

On Wednesday they had the Firle District Council. This included some singing practice as the District was going to be providing a musical item at the next Zone Conference. In the late afternoon, the APs were able to go and do a session in the Temple. Whilst in the Temple they happened to run into the Lees from Elder East's home ward. Brother Lee is from Adelaide and was back there visiting family.

On Thursday they met with the Senior Couples in Adelaide to work out the logistics for the following week. There will be 15 missionaries leaving the AAM and going to their original assignments in New Zealand, another 2 missionaries coming in, and 2 missionaries finishing up their missions. Sixteen missionaries all need to be at the Adelaide airport for a 6am flight next Monday (23rd May). They're flying up to Sydney and then on to their various destinations from there. Because most of them are heading internationally, they'll all have to be at the Adelaide airport by 3:30am. Quite a logistical task.

Later in the day, the Ward Mission Leader took them out to Hungry hacks for dinner.

On Friday they had a combined Zone Conference between 9am and 3pm for the two Adelaide zones. As a part of the Zone Conferences, those who are leaving the mission get to give a farewell testimony. With all of the New Zealanders getting ready to leave, they gave testimonies, however, Elder East wasn't asked to, even though it was his last Zone Conference. We figure that President Johansson must have either forgotten or not realised it was Elder East's last conference too. 

Elder Easts ent us through a number of photos of the Zone Conference. First up is a photo of when he was teaching that one of the Sister Missionaries took.

Then there are a couple of group photos. We're assuming that one is of just his Zone, and the other one is both Zones that were in attendance at the Conference.

Then we have some photos from after Conference. The first is with Elder Gard sitting on his knee. The story behind this is that in mission vernacular, a missionary you train is jokingly referred to as your son. Elder East trained Elder Rea, and Elder Rea trained Elder Gard, so this is a "grandfather & grandson" photo - hence the "grandson sitting on the grandfather's knee" pose and expressions.

The final one is a photo of Elder East with two of his previous companions - Elder Rea and Elder Brown.

On Saturday they had breakfast with a Senior Missionary Couple at the Bishop's home. The rest of the day was spent on trade-offs manning a stall at the Marion Stake Family History Day. They helped set up the stall in the morning and then manned it during the afternoon. In the evening they went for dinner at a Sister's home. She had a cat that Elder East made friends with, of course.

On Sunday, they had the family whom they taught on Tuesday come along to Church.

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• Both Elder Rea and Elder Gard are part of the group of missionaries due to depart to missions in New Zealand.
• Elder East has started two modules of his "My Plan" program that helps missionaries prepare for returning home.
• Elder East still hasn't heard anything re his University application.

Video Chat - 6th December 2021 - Meeting Elder Gard from WA

It was only a quick video chat last P day as they were involved in picking up a new trainee who had just flown in a couple of hours earlier. It turned out that the trainee was Elder Guard, from Bunbury Wa. We know the Guard family well. Elder Guard's auntie Kylie was his Mum's best friend at Church as a teenager. I on the other hand once went on a date with his other auntie, Donna. We also both knew his dad, Jared. Elder Guard is going to be trained by Elder Rea in Port Pirie. We were all surprised about how Elder Rea is so new yet is already training. Elder East says that Elder Rea will be good though.

A quick rundown of the last week:

Tuesday was the last of the recent Zone Conferences. Elder East said that the conference went well.

Wednesday involved participating remotely in a District Council, as well as being able to teach a lesson to a lady named Naomi.

Thurs involved President Johansson, the APs, and the Sister Training Leaders spending the day (11am-8pm) planning out the calendar for 2022. This included events such as conferences and other mission events and activities. Elder East says that President Johansson shouted them lunch and dinner throughout the day. Elder East noted that they've been eating a lot of fast food lately, mainly either for convenience whilst rushing around, or because they're in a large group of people being fed (eg conferences.)

Friday - they got to teach a lesson to an investigator in Broken Hill. We're presuming it was done remotely :)

 Saturday - they helped out with the Marion Stake activity "A Night in Bethlehem".

Sunday - they attended church in the City Branch. Elder East said it was good to see some old friends from when he was serving there.

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• The AAM has 9 missionaries waiting to go to New Zealand missions when the borders open. There are apparently 9 missionaries in New Zealand also waiting to go to the AMM.
• Elder East says that it's uncommon for them as APs not to see President Johansson each day. They have met his family, but haven't seen them very much.
• The AAM has a tradition of a member who wons a property out in Murray Bridge having all of the missionaries over for Christmas each year. It's likely that it may be limited to just a single Zone this year. 
• The mission is having a Christmas Zone Conference next week, and so P-Day is being moved from Mon (13th Dec) to Thurs (16th Dec).
• He commented that he had to get some Minties for Christmas - he associates Minties with Christmas. This is probably because we normally don't buy them, but several times Jewel won Christmas trees made out of Minties at school fetes when they were younger.
• Elder East received the Christmas decorations and Nativity set that we'd sent to him. He'd hung up the Missionary Christmas stocking that had been made for him by Kathy Reeves. He was also enjoying the Dice Advent calendar that we'd sent through to him as well.