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 - 25th October 2021 - Companion Number 17 ... Elder Burgess

It was only a brief chat this week ... as Elder East was once again preparing for a new companion. To see his full companionship list see the Companionship Page on this blog. Elder East had spent the previous week as companions with Elder Burgess from the Gold Coast. 

On Monday  Elders East & Aiho drove down to Adelaide where they stayed overnight for a District Council on Tuesday morning, at which point Elder Burgess then went with Elder East back up to Point Pirie on Tuesday afternoon. 

Elder East said that he and Elder Burgess provided a lot of service to people in Port Pirie during the week. This included going to Sister Harrison, the older Sister who feeds them in the branch, as well as heading out to the town of Gladstone to help clean up a backyard for somebody there. 

Elder East had identified that Gladstone is where one of our relatives was meant to be buried, so they visited the town graveyard whilst out there. They were unable to find our relative's grave though. He did comment that there were unmarked graves there though, so we might need to do some additional research to find out more details. 

Speaking about Elder Burgess Elder East said that they talked a lot and that Elder East helped Elder Burgess out. He says that Elder Burgess has good factual knowledge but little experience teaching or role-playing, so it sounds like this companionship was an opportunity to provide an extended training experience for Elder Burgess. Elder East commented that they did get the opportunity to teach a lesson to a new member in the Branch.  

Following their shortened week together, they got the call on Saturday that Elder East would be receiving one of the new trainees arriving the next Wednesday (27th Oct) and that Elder Burgess would be transferred up to Darwin. 

They drove down to Adelaide to stay at the Playford Elders flat so that Elder Burgess could fly out on Monday to Darwin. In the meantime, Elder East would be companions with Elder Reeves for the 2 days until his trainee arrived. Elder Reeves' area is being split and he is also getting a new trainee on Wednesday too.

Elder East and Reeves had developed a friendship before Elder East's mission started, and their Mums have become friends. They were both excited to hear that their sons would be serving together, even if only for a couple of days. Elder East said that Elder Reeves didn't count as a proper companion though - it's just a temporary companionship. They had spent some time that P Day afternoon driving through some of the Barossa Valley that makes up the Playford Elder's area.

On Tuesday (26th Oct) they will be having a combined Zone Conference for the Adelaide Zones, and then picking up their trainees on Wednesday. 

A few other quick notes from our discussion:

• Elder East discovered that he'd incurred a speeding fine back in Darwin (45km/h in a 40km/h zone), so had to arrange to pay for that. 
• We had planned on going to WA before he started his mission, however, Covid-19 caused that trip to be canceled. We will likely plan for a trip to WA next year after he returns home. 
• Elder East got to see his Mum hand-feeding wild cockatoos on the balcony back home.

Video Chat - 23rd August 2021 - Family History Lockdown and New Companion Elder Roberts

With the Elders being in lockdown from the Monday afternoon until Thursday lunchtime it was a quieter week for the Elders. They finished going through trying to contact all of the members of Katherine Branch by phone. Elder East says that they only ended up having three people respond. One who wasn't interested, one who had moved down to Perth, and so they would help move their Church records down to their new ward, and the Kajma family. The Kajma family remembered our family from when we lived in Perth.

Also during the lockdown, Elder East had spent time working on some of his family history. We were able to help him out in linking up to his extended family in the Family Search application.

The big news however was transfers which was held on the P Day that we spoke. Whilst Elder east was staying in the NT, his companion, Elder Evans was transferred down to South Australia to reopen Victor Harbour and Elder Roberts was transferred up to Darwin to be Elder East's new companion. Elder Roberts is from Sydney and came into the AAM at the same time as Elder East. They were quarantined for 14 days together when they first arrived so already knew each other. Elder Nalesoni, one of Elder East's old companions, also happened to be part of those missionaries who quarantined together. He also transferred up to Darwin this transfers, so they now have 3 of that group of 5 missionaries who quarantined together, now serving up in Darwin.

Elder Roberts was excited to be up in Darwin, whilst Elder Evans was excited to be reopening a new area. Elder East said that President Johansson was moving missionaries out of some of the older areas to reopen areas closed during covid. Besides Victor Harbour, this has also included Alice Springs and Mt Gambier. The Port Pirie missionaries are also being encouraged to go out to Port Augusta and Whyalla, much in the same way that they're being encouraged to get down to Katherine one weekend.

Elder East commented that Elder Guzman, his trainer, was about to go home. he was disappointed that he wasn't going to be able to farewell him in person.

Other notes from the week included:

• The missionaries were coopted to sing a musical item at Church - I Love To See The Temple. They sang the first two verses in English, which Elder East said went well. The third verse was sung in Samoan, which he said went OK. The final verse was sung in Thai, which was "not OK." Apparently, the one missionary who knew how to speak Thai couldn't really sing in Thai.
• They helped teach the Missionary preparation class on Sunday evening. They had five youth from the two branches in attendance which they were happy with.
• They have several investigators who are doing well.
• They found a block of units that have a bunch of street cats. Elder East tried to befriend one, but he said that it's rather skittish.
• Speaking of cats, they went to give an administration to a Church member who was sick in hospital. He gave them money and a charge to feed his cats whilst he is in hospital. I'm pretty sure Elder East would be OK with that.