Elder East Returns Home With Honour

 Elder East completed his two years of missionary service in the Australia Adelaide Mission on the 14th June 2022. He flew out of Adelaide at 4:20pm and arrived in Canberra at 6:20pm. 

There was much happiness at the airport from Mum to see her boy again after two years.

It was then a case of heading to the Stake Center where he had his final interview with President Moir ( First Counselor in the Stake Presidency) before being formally released. Unfortunately, a family friend and Stake President, President Stuart had come down sick and tested Covid positive the previous evening and was unable to do the interview himself. 

Elder East had the opportunity to share a beautiful "final testimony" to his family before being formally released.

Back at home, Mum had printed up a poster and stuck it on his bedroom door. The poster summarised Elder East's mission thus.

We are so proud of him and the work that hes done, and his desire to help and assist others. 

Video Call - 9th May 2022 - International Missionaries Arrive & Mothers' Day

Elder East was back in Adelaide, covid-free and busy with transfers that occurred on the previous Tuesday (3rd May). After transfers on the Tuesday, they had ten new missionaries arrive on the Wednesday. These new missionaries included greenies as well as three missionaries from New Zealand and three from the USA. Sister Bridge also completed her mission and went home this week, so lots of changes in the mission.

Thursday was spent helping with orientation for all of the new missionaries resulting in another hectic day. The APs also had to prepare for the Missionary Leadership Council that was being held the following day (Fri 6th May) as they were going to provide training during the MLC. 

Friday involved holding the Missionary Leadership Council, with Elder East providing training on standards.

Sunday was Mother's Day and Elder East was also able to call home and chat with his Mum. He sent through the following picture that he'd taken earlier in the week.

Elder East says that it's going to be a very hectic 5 weeks during the remainder of his mission. 

• There is a really big transfer coming up. 
• There will be an opportunity to go to the Temple next Wednesday (11th May).
• Their Ward (Firle) will be having a cottage evening in two weeks' time (Sun 22nd May), and the APs will be doing some lessons as a part of the meeting.
• Elder Brent H Nielson from the Presidency of the Seventy will be coming to Adelaide in the coming weeks.
• President Johansson's mother-in-law passed away whilst they were all in Darwin. President will be staying in the mission, but his wife and son willbe accompanying her body back to New Zealand and assisting with the funeral.

Elder East also sent us the following photo from Elder Chick. he says that they're going to try and recreate some of the photos of their parents together on their missions.

Video Chat - 1st May 2022 - A Quiet Week In Isolation

It was a quiet week for the Elders as expected as they were quarantined due to Elder East's covid. Only one other Elder, from Alice Springs, tested positive for Covid as well. Fortunately, the rules for close contacts changed during the week, so the rest of the NT missionaries were able to leave isolation on Wednesday. 

Both Elders East & Ma'a had their birthdays during their isolation period, so once the other Elders were no longer required to isolate on Thursday they got the APs a combined birthday cake.

The Elders weren't able to do much during isolation, however, they were able to teach a lesson via Zoom to one of their investigators down in Adelaide. They spent the rest of their time trying to catch up by phone with people in Adelaide and trying to make sure other missionaries were OK.

Elder East made a successful recovery from Covid during his isolation period and was given the ok for release from isolation at Midnight on Friday night. They wasted no time leaving isolation, getting drive-through at McDonalds, and then driving to the airport to fly back to Adelaide at 2:30am on Saturday morning.

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• On the 23rd May, all of the missionaries with original assignments to New Zealand missions will be leaving the AAM for their original assignments in New Zealand.
• Consequent to the above, the APs will have a second set of missionaries temporarily assigned to Firle Ward until they depart for New Zealand. This companionship will share the flat with the APs.
• A new missionary, Elder Chick, will be arriving in the mission this coming week. Elder East's mum and Elder Chick's Dad served in the same mission and were good friends. We sent through some photos of them together on their missions.

Video Chat - 25th April 2022 - Elder East Gets Covid and Gets Choc-Mint Ice Cream

It was a sick Elder East that spoke to us on the ANZAC Day public holiday P-Day. He had been confirmed as having Covid and was in isolation in Darwin. He had a sore throat and was congested but hadn't been hit too harshly by it.

Being a public holiday we had both Jayde and Jewel join us in the chat as well so that everybody could chat with him. 

He gave us a rundown of events over the preceding week.

On the previous Monday (18th April) they were still in their split companionships awaiting for the trainers of the new missionaries to come out of isolation (one had Covid and the other was a household contact). On the Monday night Elder East and Jian went to a Family Home Evening being held by the City Branch for the YSA and students in the branch. It was a good opportunity for Elder Jian to start getting to know those in the Branch and for Elder East to catch up with people from when he served there.

On the Tuesday the second trainer also came down with Covid, meaning that the greenies would need to remain with the APs for the rest of the week. He said that this meant that they were doing a lot more in the way of study and administration with the new Elders, as well as follow-up calls and tracting.

On the Wednesday they had several meetings - a District Council for Firle as well as a Technology Council. Elder East says that they were able to handover the running of the Facebook group for the missionary's families to the Social Media missionaries. After their meetings, they went and provided some service to a member who is getting ready to move to Africa, as well as getting haircuts.

On the Thursday, Elders East & Ma'a flew up with President Johansson to Darwin, leaving their greenies with other missionaries back in Adelaide. There was a get-together for the NT-based missionaries after which the APs traded off with the Alice Springs missionaries and went tracting in Darwin. 

On Friday they had the Zone Conference for the NT-based missionaries. The APs were meant to provide some training at the conference, however, President Johansson went longer than planned with his training, so they ended up not doing their session. On the Friday evening there was a sports night at the chapel being run by the local Church members that the missionaries joined in with.

On the Friday evening Elder East noticed that he was getting a sniffly nose, but he put it down to having been inside in air conditioning the whole day.

On the Saturday, President Johansson arranged for a number of people to go down together to visit with members in Katherine. There is a branch of the church at Katherine, but the members there are mostly less active. President Johansson hired a Kia Carnival and drove down with the APs, the Zone Leaders, and a senior missionary couple based in Darwin. 

It was a 6-hour round trip so besides looking at giant termite mounds by the roadside they broke the driving up with some stops. They stopped at the Adelaide River War Cemetary which contains graves of those killed by Japanese bombings in World War II. Whilst in Katherine itself they also had a look at the Katherine Hot Springs - one of the tourist spots in the area. 

Whilst visiting with the members Elder East highlighted their experience with one of them. The person was desirous of having the sacrament but hadn't had the opportunity to do so for a number of years. President Johansson gave the OK for the missionaries to conduct a short sacrament service with them even though it was a Saturday. 

They drove back to Darwin in the afternoon/evening, with President Johansson shouting the APs to dinner at a seafood buffet restaurant that night. By this time Elder East was starting to feel sick. President Johansson had had a cold earlier in the week and Elder East presumed that he'd caught President's cold which was making him feel sick. 

By Sunday morning Elder Easts' throat was really sore and he undertook a RAT test.

The positive result meant that all of the NT missionaries were now required to isolate themselves as contacts. The APs were in the Palmerston flat with Elder Evans and his companion.  

We managed to have quite a long chat with Elder East. There was a lot of banter and discussion with his sisters. Jayde ubered him some ice cream for his sore throat whilst we were talking. She said she made sure it was a flavour that he liked which the other missionaries probably wouldn't like - choc-mint.

The coming week was going to be difficult in isolation. The Elders would try and do as much as they could remotely when feeling better, but it was all about recuperating and recovering.

Video Chat - 11th April 2022 - Overnight Trip Up to Broken Hill With President Johansson

We got a run down from Elder East on some happenings from the previous week.

On the previous Tuesday (5th Apr) they had a Missionary Leadership Council on the importance of the Book of Mormon. Elders East & Ma’a also had the opportunity to have dinner with the Adelaide Temple President and his family.

Wednesday was a day of meetings - Technology Council followed by District Council. They then had trade-offs with the Zone Leaders. They went out tracting, as well as providing some service in Fulham Gardens.

They completed their trade-offs on Friday morning after which they headed off with President Johansson to go and get their flu shots at 10am. Whilst waiting, President told them that he had to drive up to Broken Hill in a couple of hours and wanted the APs to accompany him on the drive. So that was their Thursday afternoon, accompanying President Johansson on a drive up to Broken Hill to do some paperwork that had to be done in person. The mission had re-opened the Broken Hill area for missionaries only three weeks earlier, so they ended up staying with the Elders overnight before driving back on Friday morning. Once back in Adelaide they were able to catch up and have a meal with a family who were visiting from Alice Springs. Elder Ma’a knew them well from his time serving in Alice Springs.

They were able to teach a number of lessons on Saturday including a video lesson with a lady that Elder East had previously taught when in Onkaparinga Ward. Saturday evening was taken up with making calls advising missionaries who would be affected by the following mid-cycle transfer.

On Wednesday Elder East had received an email about starting his preparation course for returning home. He admitted that this made him a little but trunkee. He is feeling a bit burnt-out. It is likely that he will remain AP until the end of his mission. If that is the case, he’s likely to be in a three-way companionship during the last 3 weeks of his mission as he helps train up his replacement.

Other notes from our chat:

• The mission is dealing with several missionaries who have Covid or are in isolation including the Port Pirie Elders. Probably the most unfortunate is the Elder who was due to leave for his original assignment in Italy. He undertook his mandatory PCR test two days before leaving even though he had no symptoms … and subsequently returned a positive result.
• They have an Elder Chick coming into the mission. He is the son of a missionary who was in the same MTC and mission as Elder East’s mum. We’ve actually caught up with them several times in the intervening years and sent a few photos of the younger Elder Chick through to Elder East.
• Elder East says that his new suit is doing well. It’s a bit darker than he expected it to be. It’s also “stretchy”, which he likes.
• We also spoke a bit about Easter. Elder East wasn’t too keen on having too much chocolate, so we arranged for a Coles delivery to the office. It included lots of small Easter chocolates that he could share with other people as well as a selection of fruit.
• He called Grandma & Grandad Yates later in the day which they were absolutely thrilled with.

Video Chat - 4th April 2022 - Teaching via Video to Mexico

It was back to a regular Monday P Day this week, so it was only 5 days since our last chat, with most of the discussion being on things happening back at home:

• Elder Reeves' Dad has said that he'd like to get baptized. As you'd expect, his family is excited.
• Elder Aiho has gotten engaged. He's been home from his mission for 5 months now.
• We chatted about how Elissa is having some problems at her work, and how I was still sick from Covid.
• They were studying the Passover in Seminary this week and so we talked about different historical versions of the Passover.
• We chatted about General Conference that had just been held with the announcement of 17 new temples being built.

A couple of quick notes from the mission field as well:

• The First Counselor in the Mission Presidency, Elder Raeside has been called as an Area Authority.
• Eight missionaries are coming into the AAM next week - five from New Zealand and 3 greenies. Elder Wolff from Canberra will be one of those greenies.

Elder East also shared that they ended up having a lesson last Wednesday with somebody whom Elder Ma'a had previously taught at the start of his mission. The person in question had moved back to Mexico in the meantime however he and Elder Ma'a reconnected via Facebook. Elder Ma'a and East taught him a lesson via video last Wednesday. He has committed to be baptised and the APs have referred him to the local missionaries in Mexico to continue his gospel lessons.

Even though there wasn't much mission news, Elder East did send us a bunch of photos. 

Given the missionaries, in the above photos photo, we're assuming that this was part of the "Leavers" meeting for those missionaries who were completing their missions last transfer.

We're presuming that this is Elder East's collection of dirt from various towns he's worked in during his mission.

Later in the day Elder East also went suit shopping as he needed a new suit. He contacted us for some feedback on the suits he was trying on. 

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.