Video Chat - 10th February 2021 - Unfortunate Car / Gate Interface

Elder East seemed to be happy and to have had another positive week. They attended a multi-stake fireside on Sunday evening and had two of their investigators come along for the evening. The first one was the young lady who was recently scheduled for baptism. Elder East said that they found out that her mother turns out to be a less-active member of the Church. The other investigator who came along was somebody who they weren't actually teaching at the time. Not sure if that will change now.

The AAM blog had a write-up about the fireside which included a few photos with Elder East in them, so let's play "Where's Elder East?"

Edler East says that he's enjoying being a Zone Leader. He is enjoying helping people and wants to get better in his service. Their companionship had training with the APs on "Model Exchanges" during the week. This was to help Elder East as a new Zone Leader to learn how to be more effective when doing exchanges with other companionships. There are plans for him to exchange with all of the other companionships in the Zone in the coming week. 

He mentioned that the APs said that missionaries shouldn't have pictures of girlfriends/boyfriends up in their flats. Elder East thinks this was in response to him having a picture of Kendal up on his study desk.

One of the APs, Elder Rogers was due to go home on Friday - it was out of cycle so that he would be able to start at university. We briefly chatted with Elder East about his post-mission plans. We know that it's still a long way away, and don't want to distract him from his mission focus, but just wondered if he's had any inspiration whilst out. Elder East says that he's feeling less certain about heading down the sciences path as careers in science tend to be more limited than other areas.

Elder East says that it's setting in that Elder Taua is heading home in less than 4 weeks. Elder Taua's had to deal with arranging his travel home as well as details for his final Temple visit on top of giving a "farewell" testimony at Zone Conference. Elder Taua joked that they're trying to make him trunky.

After almost leaving last month Elder Lwin is not on the list of missionaries going home next transfer. Given the issues around getting a flight back to Myanmar and the military coup in the country his ability to get home is becoming even further uncertain. Elder East says that missionaries are joking that if the Myanmar problems continue, Elder Lwin will beat Elder Batar's record of being out for nearly 29 months.

Elder East commented that Elder Kennach's companion has gone home for medical reasons, so he's been put in a three-way companionship with Elder Nalesoni and Elder Aiho. That means three of Elder East's old companions are now all serving together.  We joked that they're all probably comparing notes about what it was like being his companion.

Some additional dot points about things we discussed:

• Even though the Adelaide temple has reopened, it's unlikely missionaries will get the opportunity to go except for this arriving or going home. They are working on trying to get recent converts to attend the temple though.
• They're not getting many member meals in the ward.; They did get a roast meal with an investigator family whose children they are currently teaching.
• The ward has a lot of missionary things in place - a ward mission leader, missionary correlation, and so on, but he'd like to see things a little less administrative and a bit more spiritually focussed.
• He's currently studying 3rd Nephi in his personal studies.
• Elder East has started putting on a lot of weight. He and Elder Taua are eating a lot of takeaway/junk food.
• Elder East managed to scratch the side of their car down a gate as they were leaving their ward missionary correlation meeting.
• Elder East has always had to put up with us complaining before his mission that his smiles never looked natural. We talked about some of the "photo faces" that certain missionaries always seem to have in mission photos.  Sister Matenga always seems to have a smirk/lopsided smile. Sister Anderson always has her eyes shut. Elder Nalesoni always looks serious and like he's frowning. Elder East did point out that he does actually have one photo of Elder Naelsoni smiling :)

Video Chat - 03rd February 2021 - Groundhog Day & Smashed Cakes

We got a message from Elder East on Thursday night, asking when Groundhog Day was - he was having a good day and didn't want to end. I don't think he realised the coincidence that it was actually Groundhog Day (2nd Feb) that very same day.

We found out the following day as to why he'd enjoyed the previous day.  He was particularly happy about a good District Council meeting they'd held and that one of their investigators had committed to being baptised. They were having a video lesson with their investigator and invited her to be baptised. She said yes, and has set a date for Easter Sunday. That's still a way off, but Elder East is excited to help her prepare. 

He said that District Council involved him doing some teaching on using goal setting as a tool, as well as recapping what was discussed during Adelaide Area Zone Conference the previous Friday. Zone Conference consisted of a general session of training, and then a break-out session for each individual zone.

Elder East and Taua gave a presentation during the general session. He explained it was a type of scripture chase, with lolly rewards for those who got the scriptures first. On the last scripture chase, the reward was a mud cake ... except Elder Taua mashed up the cake when giving it to the winning Elder. They then used this as an analogy "Sometimes as a missionary we can mash the cake when trying to teach the gospel" after which they talked about clarity in teaching. During the breakout session, they focused on being "Higher and Holier" - being better and getting rid of distractions from the work such as gossip/drama/practical jokes. Elder East says that President Marquis has changed some of the mission rules to try and support this aim of becoming "Higher and Holier".

The Adelaide Mission had 7 baptisms in January, and two of those were in Onkaparinga Ward. One was taught by the Sisters, whilst the other is the one that Elder East taught during trade-offs. 

Elder East says that Onkaparinga Ward isn't a big ward, but they've already had a proper Ward Missionary Correlation meeting and were scheduled to do things for the rest of the week. The ward has sports nights on Friday nights for members and investigators so they will usually be there on Friday evenings.

We chatted about a few things that were happening out in the wider world too:

• There has been a military coup in Myanmar, which made us wonder as to how that would impact Elder Lwin's return home.
• Western Australia had gone into lockdown because of a case of community transmission of Covid.
• There was also an out of control bushfire in Western Australia threatening the suburb where we used to live.
• We'd also come home that day to discover a dead bird in our bedroom thanks to Minori the cat.

Video Chat - 20th January 2021 - He Still Hasn't Unpacked Yet

 We got to have a longer chat with Elder East this week. He had just come from performing some service with other missionaries from the district. They helped an investigator to paint his living room and hallway. It was somebody that Elder East had already met when he was in his first area. He'd described him back on the 23rd Sep that "... he was like an atheist version of [Dad] - knowledgeable but stubborn."

Elder East shared with us about the previous P-Day when they had Elder Lwin's "just-in-case" farewell. They played volleyball down at the chapel, followed by a game of ten pin bowling. Elder East said he didn't play too bad. He says that the next transfers is on Monday 25th Jan. Given his history of being transferred at every transfer Elder East said he hasn't bothered unpacking since having to pack for Elder Lwin's "almost going home" the previous week.

The next transfer is expected to be small, but both Elder Lwin and Elder Rogers are due to go home so there will need to be some changes. He thinks that Elder Reeves will become a Zone Leader. Elder East has met the two new missionaries (Stiles & Cook) that came into the AAM mid-transfer and caused Elder East's transfer to Gulfview Heights with Elder Lwin. He met Elder Stiles who is also from Canberra but says that he doesn't recognise him at all from his pre-mission days. The other new Elder, Elder Cook plays Magic The Gathering. They were going to have a game together on P-Day, but their painting service project ended up taking longer than expected and they didn't have time to play.

On Tuesday they had a mini-exchange with the APs. Elder East spent his time with Elder Rogers. They spent some time on Elder East's contacting skills. The missionaries are now allowed to do street contacting and pretty much everything except tracting. They previously hadn't been allowed to do contacting in public due to coronavirus restrictions, so it's a skill Elder East hasn't been able to use yet. He said that they had a KFC dinner in a park and then went out just talking to people around them. Elder East said that Elder Rogers had implied that Elder East should prepare himself to serve in leadership capacities. 

 

Elder East was asked to give a 10-minute talk at Church the previous Sunday. He was only asked on the Saturday morning to do so. He talked about how the Book of Mormon can bring us closer to Christ, and how it helps to correct false traditions.

Elder East spoke about some of the members they'd been with over the last two weeks:

• There was a Brother Steven Pearce who was originally from WA who recognised Elder East's name and worked out that he was my son. I didn't recognise the name, but Elissa did. She said to ask him if he remembered the Yates family.
• They've only just had their first missionary correlation meeting with the Ward Mission Leader. Apparently, he's not too keen on meetings.
• They had a meal with the Pressler family who also gave them some bags of American treats. On finding out that Elder East likes L&P they also got him a can of L&P as well. 
• They had a meal with the Relief Society President. She warned them that her husband has dementia and can be a bit difficult and argumentative. Apparently the husband told Elder Lwin that he needed to teach Elder East how to tie a windsor knot for his tie. Elder East then said that the husband needed to get his wife to teach him how to come along to church. The family gave them a lot of left-over food which helped them with a couple of meals.
• They had another family in the ward give them two bags of "good quality" groceries, which they were obviously happy to receive.

Some other dot point notes from our discussion:

• Elder East has had problems with an ingrown toenail in the past, and he's starting to have problems with it again. He says he also needs new shows - both church shoes and runners. Unsure if his shoes are causing his ingrown toenail.
• The new Mission President for the AAM who will take over from President Marquis in July has been announced., His name is Adolf J. Johansson and he's from Tonga, but has spent a lot of time in Fiji as an Area Authority. We think he may actually have visited and spoken at a Stake Conference in Canberra several years ago.
• A talk Elder East enjoyed from his study recently was President Henry B Eyring's talk "Walk With Me". 
• They're currently only teaching two investigators. Elder Lwin has been teaching one of them for a long time as Elder Lwin first met him when this was his first area in the mission.
• Elder East said that it's hard for Elder Lwin to stay focused at the moment with the uncertainty around his departure.
• Elder Lwin is doing the cooking most nights, but it's mainly because he tends to get hungrier earlier than Elder East does.

Video Chat - 13th January 2021 - Farewell to Elder Lwin? Transferred Again?

Elissa managed to have a quick 5 minute chat with Elder East on P-Day this week, but that was all. No photos or screenshots of the chat.

Elder Lwin was originally scheduled to finish his mission in March, however, the date had been brought forward to February to coincide with a government repatriation flight back to Myanmar. Elders East and Lwin had to go into the missionary office on Tuesday to do some administration for that, at which point they were told that the flight was being brought forward to this Thursday, via Brisbane.

Elder Lwin had to go and have a Covid test to confirm he was covid-free to be eligible to take the flight. The Elders were then told to go home, pack and wait for a call to confirm if Elder Lwin would be on the flight.

With the next day being P-Day, their district decided to have their District Activity and hold a farewell for Elder Lwin. We don't have details of what they actually did, but that was why we didn't get much of a chat with Elder East. 

We did get a one-line message from Elder East that evening letting us know that Elder Lwin wasn't going on the repatriation flight, so no changes for now, but they'll have to see what that means for him going home.

A couple of other quick points that were discussed:

• Elder East says that they are getting fed a lot in his new ward (Gulfview Heights), but the members haven't seemed too interested in missionary work itself.
• One of the senior missionary couples in the mission was in Broken Hill. They needed to be Covid tested to get authorisation to cross the border back into SA, however, the authorities managed to somehow lose their tests.
• Even though Elder Lwin's nearing the end of his mission his English still isn't the strongest and Elder East says that communication is still sometimes a challenge between them. 

Video Chat - 06th January 2021 - Transferred to Gulfview Heights Ward With Elder Lwin

We got the news that even though Elder East has only been in his current area for just over 3 weeks, he is being transferred again. Normally it is 6 weeks between transfers however several new missionaries were coming into the mission out of the normal transfer cycle, resulting in changes to several companionships. His current companions would be remaining in the area but would be moving to a different flat - the accommodation they stayed in when they first came into the mission and quarantined.

Elder East is being transferred to the Gulfview Heights Ward and his new companion is Elder Lwin. Elder Lwin is from Myanmar and only has 5 weeks left of his mission. Elder Lwin was around Elder East in his first area, and Elder East says' that Elder Lwin "is pretty cool." 

Elder East was of course disappointed at being transferred yet again. His 5th area in less than 6 months. He sent an email to the Mission President with lots of questions about what he can do to help in his new area, etc. He said that he received a quick and large reply from President Marquis. One of the main things is that Elder Lwin is about to finish his mission. He is a convert to the Church and the only Church member in his family. He will be going back to Myanmar where there is only a single branch of the Church. Elder Lwin may not get many opportunities for spiritual support from others when he returns home. President Marquis wants Elder East to help ensure that Elder Lwin has an uplifting end to his missionary service before he heads home. Elder East appreciated gaining an understanding of why the changes were taking place and what the Mission President would like him to do.

Elder East says that he's going to be focussing not only on helping Elder Lwin leave on a spiritual high but also on eating healthy and exercising as well. He believes that they'll have a car in their area and that he will be the driver.

Elder East shared with us about the country trip that he and Elders Nalesoni and Aiho had taken on Monday to visit remote members. Their trip included a visit to a part-member family, a former investigator, as well as a less-active member family who they found out own a pizza shop and who gave them some pizzas. The Elders ended up driving over 230kms 

The main event from the trip though was a visit with Kit Fortune and his mother. Both Elissa and I knew the Fortunes from Greenmount Ward when we were young. I went to primary school (Years 5 & 6) with the younger of the Fortune boys, Mark, and used to go around to their home to play. The Fortune's recognised Elder East's last name and asked if he was related to Ken and Betty East (his grandparents), at which point they worked out the relationship. Kit remembers me as "The Star Wars kid". They were very thankful for the Elders' visit and it was a positive experience for Elder East.

A couple of last points from our general discussion. Elder East said that his favourite piece of artwork is Moroni burying the gold plates. I'm unsure if he was referring to this particular painting or a similar one, but he says he has it as the wallpaper on his phone.

Elder East said that he'd been going through some of old General Conference notes in his journal and came across those from President Uchtdorf's talk "Your Great Adventure". He liked the analogy about us facing our trials, whether they be giant spiders, trolls or dragons. One of the members he'd recently visited - Brother Howse, the former Mission President of Sydney - had reminded him that God knew Covid was going to happen, and how it would affect things. But regardless of whether our trials are Covid, or one of many other things as per Elder Uchtdorf's talk, it's up to us as to how we react and to ensure that we survive spiritually.