Video Call - 30th May 2022 - Time to Start Packing & The Hero's Journey

With only two weeks to go until Elder East comes home, the P Day call this week was a very jovial one, with lots of family banter and joking. It was a long and happy chat.

On Tuesday of the previous week was the mid-cycle transfer and Elder Nelson joined Elders East and Ma'a in a three-way companionship to learn the ropes as an AP in the AAM. Unfortunately, Elder Nelson came down sick during the week. Elder Ma'a ended up in a  trade-off with another missionary for most of the week whilst Elder East stayed with Elder Nelson. Elder East describes Elder Nelson as cool, and a bit of a crackup. That's good to hear as Elder East had always sounded a bit cautious about what the American missionaries would be like when they eventually came into the AAM.

On Wednesday President Johansson flew up to Sydney for Mission President's Training with Elder Brent H Nielson from the Presidency of the Seventy. All of the Australian missionaries joined in a broadcast with Elder Nielson on the Thursday morning. The meeting was an 8am start for the Adelaide missionaries. Elder East said that he pitied the Perth missionaries who would have had the meeting start at 6am their time. 

Elders East & Ma'a flew up to Alice Springs on Friday for a baptismal service on Saturday (28th May) before flying back on Sunday morning. The service contained both the baptism of a new member as well as a rebaptism of a previous member of the Church. 

Elder East has an affinity for his time in Darwin and the Northern Territory - he considers it a part of his "Hero's Journey". He sees himself as being immature prior to his time in Darwin, having his awakening in Darwin, and then continuing on as a changed/transformed missionary. 

Source: Hero’s Journey Editable Diagram for PowerPoint by SlideModel.com

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• Two new Zones were created during the week. One currently doesn't have any Zone leaders, so the APs are assisting there. Elder East has started his sorting and packing for his return home.
• There was a late change as a part of transfers about using one of the flats which caused a bunch of unintended consequences - eg a district with just Sisters - that caused some logistical issues that needed to be fixed up during the week.
• We joked that we needed to make him up a list of important or interesting things to check out that occurred during his mission, much like people did for Captain America in the Avengers movies.

• Jewel isn't looking forward to Elder East coming home ... it means she has to keep their bathroom clean. :)
• Elder East is interested in getting us to order a computer for him for his return back home.
• Elder East reckons that he's reached the point of being ready to come home. He loves the missionary work itself but not all of the issues and headaches associated with helping to look after the missionaries that takes him away from doing missionary work.

Video Call - 23rd May 2022 - Running on Two Hours Sleep & A New Companion

Today was the big day of the New Zealand assigned missionaries flying out of the AAM. When we spoke to Elder East he told us that he was operating on only 2 hours of sleep overnight due to the early check-in times (3:30am) for the departing missionaries. 

Just to add additional drama to the early start, they discovered that three of the missionaries didn't have the right Covid clearance certificates to be able to travel. They did have Covid clearance certificates, but not international Covid clearance certificates. The mission didn't even know that was a thing, and it was just fortunate that the other 12 departing missionaries did have the right type of certificates. Those three missionaries that were unable to depart were rescheduled to fly out on Wednesday (25th May). He said that whilst they were trying to sort out the Covid certificate issue the airport went from empty to full with long lines everywhere.

Just to add further complexity, they also received a call letting them know that some of the missionaries flying into the AAM from the New Zealand missions had missed their flight.

Because of everything that has been going on, lots of Elders have been using the APs flat as a temporary sleeping place. Elder East was happy that now that the other missionaries had flown out, the APs flat could get back a semblance of order again rather than being full of missionaries and luggage in transit.

Mid-transfers were happening the following day (Tues 24th May). President Johansson had made some last-minute changes to those originally planned. Elders East & Ma'a would be going into a three-way companionship to help train a new AP to replace Elder East when he leaves. Their new companion is Elder Nelson - one of the American missionaries who recently arrived into the mission. Elder Nelson is from South Jordan in Utah and has already served about 18 months of his mission in the USA whilst the borders were shut. He will be Elder East's 21st (and presumably final) companion on his mission.

Other quick notes from our chat:

• The Ward had a cottage evening activity during the week. The Elders taught a lesson about the Plan of Salvation. Elder East said that it was a good night.
• They were expecting eight people for Church on Sunday, but none of them ended up coming for various reasons, which they were disappointed about.
• Elder East successfully voted in the Federal Election on Saturday - he'd transferred his enrolment to SA. He ended up having to help other missionaries who still had their enrolments back at home to find appropriate polling centres to vote at
• Elder East will be heading up to Alice Springs next weekend where a number of baptisms will be occurring.