Video Chat - 22nd November 2021 - Elder Evans Joins as a New Assistant to the President

We chatted with Elder East twice during last P-Day. He was rather down when we first spoke to him early in the morning as there had been some issues in the mission over the last 3 or 4 days. This had resulted in a lot of interviews by the Mission President and a number of changes in companionships. Missionaries hadn’t been the best at keeping the mission rules – nothing serious enough to be sent home over – but enough that it would affect the work and their ability to recognize the promptings of the Spirit. Helping President Johansson deal with that had obviously taken a bit of an emotional toll on Elder East. When we spoke to him again later in the day he was more upbeat and positive about how things were going.

Elder East filled us in on some more details of Elder Read. He said that they had been getting along well. Elder Read had previously lived in London, working as a kitchenhand before heading back to Melbourne. He was originally called to serve in one of the Chilean missions and spent several months there before Covid hit. He was reassigned to serve in the Adelaide Mission, but got caught up in the Melbourne lockdown and served some time there. He is now in the Adelaide Mission to complete his service. 

The rundown of their previous week (16th - 22nd Nov) was as follows:

Monday (15th Nov) - after having spoken to us on P Day he also contacted and spoke with Grandma and Grandad Yates to thank them for a car and money that they had sent through to him. They were pleasantly surprised to get to talk to him.

Tuesday (16th Nov) was Transfers, so a hectic day, as well as learning the ropes of being an AP from Elder Read. They got to have a farewell meal at a Burger restaurant with one of Elder East’s former companions (and his 13th cousin)  Elder Aiho who was heading home.

Wednesday (17th Nov) they had several new trainees fly in, so it was a matter of dropping Elder Aiho off at the airport and picking up three new missionaries - Two Elders and one Sister. They got to have lunch with the new trainees.

Thursday through to Saturday was helping President Johansson in dealing with a lot of interviews to deal with the issues that had arisen. He commented that they went out so that Elder Read could get a new suit on Saturday at one point. 

On Sunday they joined in the Marion Stake Conference. He said that they had a number of difficulties with their technology as they tried to broadcast the meeting. He said it got a bit humorous as the Zoom chat full of messages about problems with the broadcast was displayed behind the speaker at the pulpit.  Elder East mentioned that he got to catch up with some of the missionaries and old investigators he had taught in Onakapringa and Marion Wards. 

As a result of the missionary interviews, there were a number of leadership changes and movements amongst the missionaries.  Elder East now had a new companion as a fellow Assistant to the President, his former companion Elder Evans. Elder East said that Elder Evans was very surprised to be called as an AP. He had been serving down in Victor Harbour.

The coming week was going to include a lot of Zone Conferences where they would be accompanying President Johansson. 

Some other short notes from our discussion:

• They'd only had one "home cooked" meal during the week as quite often they're accompanying and eating with president Johansson. 
• One of Elder East's former companions, Elder Taua, who is now home from his mission, has gotten engaged to one of the former Sister Missionaries from the AAM. 
• Part of the upcoming training will be on rebalancing the service vs proselyting hours for the missionaries. As Covid restrictions reduce, the options for proselyting are opening up and should be more of a focus.
• Elder East got to show us a nativity display that is set up outside the mission office.

Chat - 17th March 2021 - Area Photo Collages

Elder East advised that they were having a district P Day activity this week so we wouldn't get a call, but he did share a bunch of photos and chat with us instead. He said that "We send a collage most nights to our zone chat with our daily highlights", so these were his most recent images.

Other dot points from our text chat:

• He is in need of a case for his phone for both protection and to try and keep it clean. Following a few suggestions he decided he liked this one, so I've ordered one for him.

• He wasn't aware of the photos of himself on the Church's news article about the service they provided. His comment was that "I look fat ... Gotta work out more"
• He was needing to go and pay the speeding fine that he received a little while ago. We said that we would put some money into his account towards it, which he was very thankful for. I said not to expect it in the future but that "It's good to be able to have somebody who can pay the price for our sins 🙂 [It's an] object lesson you can use 🙂". He understood the analogy I was making to how the Saviour's atonement works.
• Elder East confirmed that Sister Malu - a sister missionary who just arrived into the mission from Canberra - was sent to Darwin for her first area. 
• They have Stake Missionary Correlation scheduled for Thursday (18th Mar), which will be the first one that Elder East has been to. He thinks that there might be a Zone Conference scheduled for this week as well.
• Elder East has heard once from Elder Taua since he went home, and Elder Taua also participates in a  messenger chat that the missionaries have.
• When we asked as to how his investigators were going he expressed some frustration/sadness saying "We can get them like 50% of the way [towards baptism] then something comes up...". I empathised, advising " Getting them through all of the discussions and to the baptism itself is always a major accomplishment.  Satan is working on them just as hard as you are, and he gets more help."
• I mentioned that I will be flying to see his grandparents in WA in May and have a 4½ hour stopover in Adelaide. I advised that if he's still in Adelaide after the next transfer, I'll discuss with the mission office as to whether I can take him and his companion out to lunch.
• He says that he and his new companion are getting along really well. I asked him that, noting his hyphenated English/Polynesian name, is Elder Beaumont-Tafua more Polynesian or more palagi or half-and-half? Elder East said that "He's white as heck" but that he tries to be more Samoan because his original mission calling was to Samoa. :)

Elder East got in trouble from his Mum during the evening. She saw the following photo on the "Missionary Mommas" Facebook group that she's a member of. 

Elder East had asked his Mum to make an apron for him, but it appears he then left it behind in one of his old flats and it is now being used by other Elders.

Video Chat - 10th March 2021 - New Companion is Elder Beaumont-Tafua

Elissa had a short chat with Elder East on Wednesday morning in regards to the death of a member of his Year 12 graduating class several days earlier. She was concerned as to how much of an impact the news may have had on Elder East. Elder East advised that he didn't really know the young man though. Still, it was sad news with the young man being in a car accident on the Monaro Highway. He was the third member of Elder East's graduating class to have passed away since graduation.

Later in the day, we got to have a short video chat whilst Elissa and I were both still at work. The big news of course was Transfers that had just happened on the Monday. Elder Taua had now returned home and Elder East has stayed in Onkaparinga Ward. His new companion is Elder Tafua (or to be correct according to the mission blog, Elder Beaumont-Tafua.) 

Elder Tafua is from Brisbane. Elder East describes him as a tall, skinny basketballer who is a jack-of-all-trades. Elder East and Elder Tafua were in the online MTC at the same time, although Elder Tafua was heading out a week later than Elder East. They were in different districts, so Elder Tafua isn't in any of the MTC screenshots that Elder East took. Elder Tafua was originally called to serve in Samoa. 

Some dot point notes from our discussion:

• Elder Taua was a bit emotional as he got ready to leave.
• Elders East & Taua were in a three-way companionship on Sunday and Monday as Elder Brown's companion was flying to Darwin for transfers and had to leave on the Sunday.
• Elder East is still a Zone Leader but is sharing the ZL duties with Elder Brown.
• Elder East discovered that Elder Stiles, the newly arrived from Canberra knows Alex Garland.
• Their teaching pool is quite large at the moment. 
• Elder East says that the Friday night sports nights have been "awesome". He didn't explain in what way they were awesome though.
• Joseph Stubbs, one of the YSAs from Canberra was in Onkaparinga Ward on Sunday. Apparently, he was there for a date. :) He gave Elder East $10 to get himself a feed at some point in the week.
• They have a trade-off scheduled on Friday (12th Mar)

Elissa showed Elder East pictures of the cowhide seat covers and other accessories that Jewel received for her birthday. These now adorn the family car that Elder East was driving before his mission.

Elder East was "horrified" at what has been done to Dannielle Devito (his name for the car.).

Video Chat - 3rd March 2021 - Elder Taua's Last P-Day

It was a quick chat with Elder East last P-Day. It was Elder Taua's last P-Day and so they were doing things that he wanted to do. That had involved going for a nature walk and then ten-pin bowling. Judging by the photo we got from Elder East, I'm presuming the nature walk was down on the coast.

 I'd asked if there were any other photos he could send us and he sent through this montage as well.

The rest of the chat can be summed up in a number of dot points. It wasn't a long chat, and a lot of it was more Elder East getting updates on what's been happening at home. News from him was:

• Elder East said that it had been hard for Elder Taua to remain focused being so close to going home. 
• Elder East is hoping to stay in the area during transfers next week.
• They finally got to talk with their investigator Daniel. He's doing OK but has been dealing with some family issues.
• Their other investigator Siritia is doing well.
• They went on an exchange last Friday/Saturday with the Elders in Marion - his old area. He had to ride a bike whilst in that area. Fortunately, it's a fairly flat area he says.
• They also had a short "Hour to Power" trade-off with the APs.

We pointed out that the day was exactly a year since he received his mission call.

The AAM blog updated with another photo of Elder East. There was a post from the 23rd Feb advising that "We ran a bit short on time in our recent MLC so we called a special MLC plus district leaders Zoom training meeting.  Along with the assistants to the president, we trained on better using our Area Book Planners and keeping Progress Records updated daily on our smartphones. " The post included the following photo:

Addendum: We got a quick message on Sunday morning from Elder East saying that he was staying in Onkaparinga Ward. He's obviously getting a new companion, but this will be the first transfer that he hasn't changed area.

Video Chat - 24th February 2021 - Worn Out His First Lot of Shoes

As usual, we chatted with Elder East last P-Day about the past week. 

Last Thursday was Elder Taua's "Leaver's " dinner and session at the Temple. Elder east was expecting to spend time with the APs that evening but ended up in the Morialta area with his old companions, Elders Kennach and Nalesoni.

The major event was the Missionary Leadership Council that was held the previous Saturday. I mentioned in a separate blog that the Area Authority in attendance was Elder Paul Lekias, and his wife Rebecca whom we both know. Elder East said that the MLC was good, but that it was less of a council and more of being taught, possibly because it was the first one in over a year with an Area or General Authority in attendance. 

The main things covered in the MLC included Referrals, Finding and a doctrinal discussion about the Atonement. There were concerns raised that some of the referrals aren't being contacted. Elder East did note that some referrals are obviously fake. I shared that we got one when I was a missionary in Tamworth for "Slim Dusty". We knew it would be fake but went and checked out the address anyway - it was a car yard :) Elder East said that the Lekias' provided a referral that ended up being in their area. Elder East checked but said that the woman who answered said that she wasn't interested.

On Sunday Elder East spoke in Sacrament Meeting. He said that he used the examples of Nephi vs Laman & Lemuel after the death of Lehi. Nephi was able to keep himself on track whereas Laman & Lemuel didn't have Lehi continually calling them to repentance. He encouraged people not to rely on others to call us to repentance.

Again, there's also another blog entry about how May Sandeline-McCann, Elissa's trainer on her mission, just happened to be visiting Elder East's ward on Sunday when he was speaking and got to tell him "I was your Mum's trainer". That's the second of his parents' missionary companions that Elder East has now met.

On Monday they held District Council  - and Elder East said that he cooked chocolate chip cookies for everyone. 

Speaking of their investigators he spoke of the lady they're teaching. They had another lesson with her. Elder East says she has a medical condition that makes it hard for her to read but she read a whole chapter in the scriptures with them. The two other main investigators they have - Daniel and his cousin - hadn't replied back to their contacts over the last week, so they're concerned as to how they're doing. It had been a week and a half since they've seen them.

They had a referral from the Sister missionaries that they visited. The person was interested, but Elder East described them as crazy. Happy crazy, not depressed crazy though :) Elder East mentioned that the highlight of the week was some finding they did in Seaford, but he didn't explain why it was a highlight. They had three lessons scheduled for Wednesday evening - two with members and one with an investigator.

 A couple of other dot points from our discussion:

• They have started doing some exercise at night time - going for a walk down to the beach and back Obviously they're living within walking distance of the coast.
• They have gone over their kilometre allowance for their car, so they plan on riding bikes for the rest of the month. Elder East has only ridden a bike fro 2 days during the first 8 months of his mission.
• Edler East bought himself some new Church shoes and runners earlier on P-day. He said that he'd worn through his existing shoes.
• A number of missionaries in the mission are counting down their remaining time in the mission field as a lot of them now have elss than 100 days left.

Video Chat - 17th February 2021 - Elder East 479 Days, Elder Taua 479 Hours, Speeding Fine $490

Elder East had an accomplishment in the last week. There was a mini-transfer due to one of the APs finishing his mission and going home. Elder East didn't get transferred as a consequence ... is this the first transfer of any type where he hasn't ended up being transferred?

The previous District Leader and his companion in Elder East's zone were transferred out, with Elder Brown becoming the new District Leader. Consequently Elder East went to have trade-offs with Elder Brown to help train him in his new role. This had the added benefit of Elder East going to a meal appointment with the Wilsons - a family that both Elissa and I knew on our missions. [This has been written up as a separate post.] Elder East commented that Brother Wilson was called as the 1st Counsellor in the Bishopric only two days later. Elder East also commented that Elder Brown has only ever been on trade-offs twice - both times with Elder East. During the trade-offs, they also went and shared a lot of other messages with members in Mount Barker. Elder East said that the only meeting  they had with an investigator didn't go too well although he didn't say why, 

Elder East says that he'll have more trade-offs in the coming weeks with the other companionships in the zone. He'll have a short trade-off with the APs in Firle tomorrow (Thurs 18th Feb) as Elder Taua will be having his "farewell" temple session.

Elder Taua only has 20 days left on his mission - in fact, Elder East had worked out at one point during the day that Elder Taua had 479 hours left whilst Elder East had 479 days left. Elder East is hoping to stay in the area at next transfers when Elder Taua goes home. They currently have three investigators with dates for baptism. One of their investigators had two cousins come down from Port Augusta.  The investigator has been enthusiastic about sharing the gospel with them, and one of the cousins has started being taught and accepted the invitation to be baptised. Elder East wants to stay to help all of them towards baptism.

Elder East will be attending his first Mission Leadership Council on Saturday (20th Feb) Whilst the MLC should be good, it's held in Firle which is an hour trip away, so will be their second drive to Firle this week. They have a kilometre limit they're meant to keep under with their car, but are finding it difficult and have already exceeded their monthly allowance.

On the topic of cars, Elder East says that it looks like he was picked up speeding by a speed camera. It was a 60 km/h limit where it had just decreased from 100km/h. He says that he was decelerating but hadn't done so quickly enough and was still at 70km/h. Apparently, it's about a $490 fine. Ouch. 

Some more dot points from the chat:

• Most of the Adeliade chapels seem to have full-sized cultural halls which fit a full basketball court in, as opposed to the half-court size that he's used to.
• He commented that he learned that there's a lot more he needs to do as a Zone Leader to help and serve others. I commented that it's like that it any Church calling - it's just that the circle of people your serving and helping changes according to your calling.
• Onkaparinga Ward has a sports night on Friday nights - mainly basketball. There are a lot of youth in attendance, as well as a recent convert. The missionaries usually go and join in.
• Elder East got a package from his friend Kendal. I've written that up as a separate post. He says that he should've paid attention to the "Fragile" sticker on the box!

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 :)

Zone Conference Photos - 29th January 2021

 The AAM Blog put up a post about the Adelaide Area Zone Conference held on the 29th January. As always, I've taken the liberty of extracting the photos of Elder East that were included as a part of the blog.

The AAM Blog captioned these photos with "Elder East and Elder Taua do a special training and object lesson for the 42 Doctrinal Principles from Preach My Gospel."

A few photos of Elder East during the lunch break.

The following photos are from the "Higher & Holier" presentations they did when they broke up into Zone specific workshops after lunch. Being the Zone Leader for Marion Zone, that was 

And of course, the obligatory conference photos. First, all of the missionaries from Adelaide at the conference, and then one just of Marion Zone.

Video Chat - 27th January 2021 - Transferred to Onkaparinga Ward With Elder Taua

 We got to speak to Elder East slightly later this P-Day. He had earlier joined in on a district service project in helping to clean a lady’s home. Apparently, it was hard work. We even managed to get some photos of “after” the clean-up.

Elder East had also just called my parents (his paternal grandparents – Nanny and Grandad East) before calling us. They are in their nineties and in poor health and have recently made the decision to move into aged care. Nanny told me later that evening that they’d just found out that they’d received an offer of a place in a home, however, Nanny and Grandad wouldn’t be sharing a room. Nanny had become upset and depressed about this but said that she then received Elder East’s call which had raised her spirits. Elder East will be happy to learn the positive effect a simple thing like his phone call could make – even if Nanny did think that he sounded like he’d gained an American accent. 

Elder East sent us a few additional photos of the past week. The first was from Church last Sunday where a couple of recent converts (Kevin and Nicky) from the Adelaide City branch came to say hi and also had lunch with the Elders at the chapel.

There was a nice farewell photo with Elder Lwin during transfers.

The fire in the Adelaide Hills bordered Elder East's new ward so he was still able to see it on his trip down to his new area. Fortunately, heavy rains would help bring the fire under control the following day. 

Elder East says that his new area, Onkaparinga Ward, is a fairly middle-class area. There are a few “dodgy parts” but not as many as Marion or Prospect Wards. Their missionary flat is a fairly new three bedroom two bathroom, two story home. They share the ward area with the Sister Missionaries from Christie’s Beach. They’ve already met the Bishop, Ward Mission Leader, and Stake President in his first week there. He even had an impromptu dinner appointment with a family they visited who were having a barbecue. They shared a message with the family and were rewarded with the leftovers from the barbecue.

Bishop of Onkaparinga Ward

His companion is Elder Taua (pronounced like Tower) who is from Brisbane and is due to go home in 41 days (and counting :) ). Similar to his time with Elder Lwin, Elder East has been asked to help Elder Taua have a strong end to his mission. Elder East says that Elder Taua happens to know the Punou family that we knew from Tuggeranong Ward.

Elder East has had some positive news with investigators. 

• The Sister Missionaries had a baptism in the ward last Saturday, and Elder Taua got to perform the baptism. 
• An investigator in Morialta Ward that Elder East taught is scheduled to be baptised.
• They were following up with a couple who were investigating the Church. Elder East bore his testimony. He observed that the feeling of the Spirit was strong and the lady from the couple then shared her testimony about the truthfulness of the things they were being taught. 
• Two children that Elder East helped teach in Onkaparinga Ward whilst previously on trade-offs had been baptised.

Some additional dot points from our discussion

• They have started doing street contacting - ie just talking to members of the public to talk about the gospel. This hadn't been allowed during previous pandemic regulations.
• Elder East seems to be enjoying the responsibility of being a Zone Leader. He has Zone Conferences coming up that he has to start preparing some training for.
• It was only a small transfer. Elder Reeves has been transferred up to Darwin and is the Zone Leader up there.
• They are losing some of their senior missionary couples soon who often serve in smaller country branches. With the large decrease in missionaries during the pandemic, several missionary flats in country towns like Alice Springs and Mildura have been sold off. 
• Onkaparinga Ward is one of Dannielle Grant’s old wards from her mission that she enjoyed serving in.