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 - 14th March 2022 - They Didn't Lose A Mission Car

It was only 4 days from our last chat with Elder East on the previous Thursday, so there wasn't a lot of news to share. He did share with us that Elder Ma'a's original mission call was to the Ivory Coast in Africa.

Also, earlier in the day the Zone had a farewell party for Sister Ip who was finishing her mission the following week. The APs helped with the decorations which had a "yellow" theme. 

The APs went to Firle Ward on Sunday after which they had a Mission Correlation Meeting. Elder East sent us a photo with the Travers family in Firle Ward, who are related to the Travers that we know.

Elder East also sent us a picture of Elder Rea and himself on trade-offs.

Later on Sunday the APs had a 5-hour meeting with President Johansson to go through transfers for the following week. Even though transfers are meant to be every six weeks, the pandemic is still resulting in missionaries arriving "mid-transfer" so they're really happening almost every three weeks.

Elder East noted that he only has two "full" transfers left.

Commenting on the recent conferences during Elder Nattress's visit, he said that they felt bigger than normal. The mission is growing. He doesn't really know the missionaries well outside of his zone, but he knows of everybody - that's part of the role of being AP.

Elder East also told us a funny story about the mission tour. With all of the missionaries from country areas and the NT down in Adelaide, the mission office provided some additional cars for missionaries to get around. After the tour finished and missionaries went back to their area, the office Elders advised that they were a car short. They'd given out 3 but only had 2 come back. The APs were sure that they'd gotten back the cars they'd given out. Elder East went and did a check where they stored the cars that aren't in use, and sure enough, the missing car was parked there and wasn't missing. This story was especially funny given both of Elder East's sisters have accidentally lost vehicles in the past that turned out not to be lost

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.

Video Chat - 15th November 2021 - Called as an Assistant to the President

In a huge surprise, Elder East let us know last P Day that he was being transferred yet again. Elder Rea was Elder East's third trainee and he has yet to finish training one of them. The transfer news was rather exciting and intimidating though. He was told on the Saturday night (13th Nov) to pack his bags because he was being transferred but he thought it was just the APs playing a joke on him. It turns out that they weren't. Elder East was called to be a new Assistant to the President to be companions with Elder Read.

Elder East is sad to be leaving Port Pirie, he'd expected to be spending Christmas there. He didn't get to say goodbye as they had arranged to be attending church in Whyalla on Sunday (14th Nov) and visiting investigators and members in Whyalla and Port Augusta during the day. 

Elder Brown will finish training Elder Rea - the second time Elder Brown has finished the training of a missionary who started with Elder East. Elder East says that Elder Rea is strong - he'll be a good missionary. 

The traditional rundown of Elder East's week.

Tuesday was spent doorknocking in the rain. 

On Wednesday they had a big companionship study session preparing for several planned lessons later in the day. Unfortunately, both of the lessons ended up canceling, but they thought the preparation they had done was really good. Elder East said that they then went and visited a nearby small town to ascertain if they were going to undertake some missionary work there. Then it was time to drive down to Adelaide where they stayed with other Elders overnight.

Thursday was a special devotional for the AAM missionaries. Elder Lekias, the Area Authority was there in person, but they were also joined via video by Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita, the second counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency, Elder Carl B Cook from the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Ulisses Soares from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Elder East said that the devotional was good. All four of the area and general authorities spoke to them about their missionary service. He was called up by Elder Lekias at one point to share the purpose of being a missionary. Elder East thought it might be because Elder Lekias knows our family, however, we found out later that he'd actually asked for a recommendation from President Johansson on who to ask up, and President had recommended Elder East.

On Thursday evening Elders East and Rea spent the night down in Adelaide, spending the evening phoning people around Whyalla and Port Augusta to visit on Sunday. 

They drove back to Port Pirie on Friday morning and then spent the afternoon doorknocking and doing lessons.

Elder East said they had a lot of lessons on Saturday. 

Sunday they headed out to Whyalla for Church. They have their own chapel and had 23 in attendance even though they were missing a couple of families, so Whyalla Branch is actually bigger than Port Pirie. Elder East commented that the main entrance into Whyalla is through the industrial part of town. He said that it looked like the setting for a Young Adult dystopian novel. Having said that, once you were in town there was a nice view out into the bay. Being a holiday area the town also has a lot of touristy things to do. 

At the Whyalla Sacrament meeting they had the opportunity to bless the sacrament for the branch. Their investigator wasn't able to come to Chruch that day, but they were able to meet up with another former investigator and a less active member family in Whyalla and have lessons with both. They also caught up with a family in Port Augusta and had a lesson with them too. Elder East said that all of the lessons they had that day were really nice and that he enjoyed them. They arranged to eb able to keep in touch and continue teaching with all of the people they visited. They learned on the way back to Port Pirie that the APs weren't joking about Elder East being transferred, and Sunday night was spent starting to pack.

When we spoke to him on P Day he said that he'd only been down in Adelaide for about 2 hours, having left Port Pirie around lunchtime. He said that some of the other missionaries were acting a bit differently around him now that he was about to become an AP. He commented that the APs flat was big. They quite often have to accommodate missionaries in transit both in and out of the mission, along with transfers and conferences. 

Typically APs serve for about three transfers, so he's hoping for a bit of stability in his new role. He doesn't know many of those in his new district, only having served around one of the 8 missionaries. He thinks that his role will now be more orientated towards ministering to missionaries rather than directly proselyting. The APs physically attend Firle Ward, but are remotely responsible for Mildura Ward. As an AP he is likely to travel a lot on tradeoffs and to accompany President Johansson as he travels in his official capacity. 

 He mentioned that one of the people he had been teaching in Onkaparinga Ward is now in Firle Ward so he might be able to catch up with them.

Video Chat - 8th November 2021 - No Fish & Chip Shops in Port Germein

Another weekly recount of how Elder East is doing out in the mission field.

Tuesday was spent doing a lot of doorknocking. They're trying to do at least an hour of doorknocking each day. They had a lesson with a lady who is involved a lot with family history. Elder East said that there was a name in her family tree (William Yates) that was the same as from one of his ancestors in Family Search. He was wondering if there could be some distant relation knowing that he has relatives from around the area. He also discovered that some of these people had graves in Port Pirie so he'll investigate further.

On Wednesday they did more doorknocking as well as provide some service for a member. Elder East said that the service involved a lot of shoveling and that a lot of the service they do is gardening or outside maintenance-related. 

They also had a teaching appointment with somebody they've been teaching for a while. He'd decided that for a laugh he was going to pretend to be a "Fundamentalist" to try and shock Elder Rea during the lesson.

On Thursday they helped a branch member with her family history. Specifically, there was a bit of ICT help required in trying to get her family history off of the old Personal Ancestral File and on to the Family Search website. 

On Friday they did over three hours of doorknocking, and as always is the way, the success didn't come until the end. The last three houses they doorknocked all resulted in return appointments. Maybe they just started at the wrong end of the street :)

Every Saturday they are providing service for a family in helping with their backyard cleanup and this week was no different. Later in the day they also taught a lesson. Elder East said that there was a "cool" thunderstorm that came through during the afternoon. In the evening they were at the nearby town of Port Germein.  They were hoping to get Fish & Chips for dinner whilst in town but found none, so ended up heading back to Port Pirie. Elder East sent us a photo of the two of them at the jetty at Port Germein. 

Elder East said that the highlight of the week spiritually was on Sunday. Besides Church, they were doorknocking and were able to teach two lessons that afternoon. One was to an 18-year-old guy with two of his mates and then another man later on. Elder East said that the Spirit was strong during the lessons. I'd like to hear more of these types of experiences from Elder East and in more detail. Sometimes we only find out about interesting or poignant events weeks or months after they occur when he'll casually mention them. It would be good to record more faith-promoting stories on this blog rather than just being a travelogue. Elder East has them, but he often doesn't think to share them with us even we ask about spiritual highlights of the week. 

Next weekend  (13th-14th Nov) they are hoping to get out to Whyalla Branch and visit the members around Whyalla and Port Augusta. They have contacted the referral from the previous week and arranged for them to come along to Whyalla Branch next Sunday (14th Nov).

They had been hoping to travel down to Adelaide last night (Sun 7th Nov) and then spend P Day with other missionaries before heading back to Port Pirie. Elder East is aiming to try and have a P Day meetup with the Adelaide Elders as a regular fortnightly event. Their plans were thrown into disarray though when they found out on Sunday that they had to travel down to Adelaide over Wednesday and Thursday (10th-11th Nov) for a devotional being held on Thursday. It is going to be a streamed devotional with Elder Lekias (Area Authority), several Area Seventies, and Elder Soares from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Other notes from our discussion:

• They are being fed a lot and are being given lots of leftovers as well. He said that the previous night's meal appointment had left them with about 6 servings of bolognese to take home. he says that their fridge is full and that they have "So much food."
• The mission had a Zoom meeting scheduled with President Johansson for that P Day evening (Mon 8th Nov.)
• Port Pirie Branch averages about 20-25 people in attendance at Sacrament each Sunday.
• Elder Rea is very physically fit. It's motivating Elder East to exercise. They've been going out jogging each morning. Elder East says that Elder Rea is also very smart. High praise from someone who's definitely no mental slouch himself. 

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.