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.

Video Chat - 20th September 2021 - Trade-offs In Alice Springs

Our weekly video chat with Elder East was delayed as the Elders were still in Alice Springs on trade-offs for P Day. President Johansson, who had joined the Elders in Alice Springs, had decided to have the Elders stay the day and spend P Day with him as they toured some of the nearby tourist sights around Alice. 

It had been a busy week for them. On Tuesday and Wednesday they'd crammed in as many lessons and catchups with people as possible, knowing they'd be away for the rest of the week. 

They spent Wednesday night in the old Sister Missionary's flat in Darwin as they had to be up by 4AM on Thursday to get out to the airport for a 6AM flight. It was a 2 hour flight. Elder East said that they got to see the sunrise over Alice Springs as they arrived which was pretty. 

On Thursday Elder East was on trade-offs with Elder Beaumont-Tafua who had previously served with in Onkaparinga Ward. On Friday he spent the day with Elder Maher. President Johansson flew in on the Friday morning and spent some time talking with Elders East and Maher at the missionary's flat after arriving. Elder East mentioned that his favourite event during thre trade-offs was a lesson he taught with Elder Maher to a family on the Friday where they helped teach their 9YO daughter about the Gospel. They also had dinner with President Johansson on the Friday night.

He said that they did a lot of member work as Alice Springs is a reasonable-sized branch.  The branch is mainly made up of Polynesian and American members and there are a lot of part-member families. The members of the branch are excited at having missionaries back in the branch.

On Saturday he said that they got a free lunch at a canteen at the local netball stadium that is run by members of the branch. Elder East and Elder Roberts went out tracting together on the Saturday. They invited several people to Church and were able to get a couple of return appointments for the Alice Springs missionaries.

On Sunday President Johnasson was the main speaker in the branch Sacrament meeting and then took a combined second-hour class. They then all joined in with the missionary preparation class during the afternoon. On the Sunday evening there was a large get-together of about 8 member families (over 30 people)  and all of the missionaries for dinner. The missionaries shared a small lesson/message at the get together.

On the Monday P Day, President Johansson had been contemplating whether to try and take the Elders out to Uluru, but it's a 10-11 hour round trip, so they ended up visiting some locations closer to town. They went out to the West MacDonnell National Park and visited Standley Chasm and Simpson's Gap. On the drive out to the National Park they encountered a Thorny Devil on the road that had to shoo off.  Elder East bought himself a cap from the visitor's centre so that he didn't get sunburnt during the day. He enjoyed the visit and commented that Standley Chasm reminded him of The Narrows in Zion National Park. After the sightseeing, the Elders then had an activity going ten pin bowling back in town. Elders East and Roberts would then be flying back to Darwin on Tuesday morning (21st Sep.)

Besides helping out the Alice Springs missionaries and providing training, part of the purpose of the trade-offs was to assess if Alce Springs has sufficient work for additional missionaries to be assigned to the branch. Elder East noted that President Johansson is opening up and focussing on some areas that haven't had much missionary contact in a while. It's possible that Adrwin may be receiving more missionaries in the future.

Some other dot point notes from our chat:

• They have a lunch appointment with Elder East's Uncle Ross scheduled for Tuesday (21st Sep) as he's currently visiting Darwin. 
• Elder East is due to have his second Covid vaccination on Thursday (23rd Sep).
• There was talk about whether to maybe have a future Zone Conference held in Alice Springs.
• President asked Elder East if he'd like to train. Elder East commented that technically he was a trainer of Elder Davey, although it was a three-way companionship and Elder East was transferred out after only 3 weeks. Elder east reckons that training in Alce Springs would be great. 
• They already have a busy week scheduled ahead of them for when they get back to Darwin.
• Elders East and Roberts are thinking of buying and splitting up a Magic the Gathering card collection from one of the people they know in Palmerston.

Video Chat - 9th August 2021 - Helping With A Baptism and Snakes Whilst Teaching

We had our first Monday P Day chat last week and Elder East was able to share with us some photos from the previous Saturday. He and three other Elders had helped with a baptism. The gentleman who was getting baptised only has one leg and is in a wheelchair. The four Elders were able to help him into the water and to be baptised. 

Somebody on Facebook also happened to post up the following picture of the baptism as well. 

With the changeover from Wednesday to Monday P Days it was a shorter week to chat about, but Elder East mentioned some other happenings during the week:

• They provided some service to an older lady by helping to clean out her garage. During the cleanout Elder East found a slow cooker cookbook that she didn't want that she was happy for him to have. He was quite happy about getting a cookbook. 
• One of the people that they've been teaching came along to Church on Sunday.
• They had a meal appointment on Sunday evening.
• He received his package of MtG cards that we'd sent through to him for P Day.
• There is a Missionary Preparation Devotional this coming Sunday (15th Aug) that they were going to be helping with. This ties in with missionary preparation classes that are being started in Darwin which they will be helping with as well. Elder East said that the missionary preparation classes were going to be taught by the only YSA in Darwin.
• The weather in Darwin is getting more humid but has still been nice.
• They haven't tried doorknocking in the evenings yet.

Elder East also shared a story with us that he hadn't told us about when they had trade-offs recently. They were teaching a family on the balcony of the family's home. As they were teaching they could hear movement from the garage nearby. A black-headed python slithered out from the garage about a metre away from them before slithering away. As you can appreciate, they all stopped and watched to see what the snake was going to do when it appeared.

A few other comments from Elder East about their day to day happenings:

• They do have bikes, but only tend to use them to travel when they have a lot of unplanned time, otherwise, it's better to use their car.
• They consider that they have both the largest and smallest areas in the mission. Large in that it covers most of the top of the Northern Territory, but small in that in a practical sense, there are only 5 suburbs around Palmerston that they can travel to and work in. They spend most of their time in only two suburbs, Durack and Woodroffe.
• Elder East was going to try a family favourite recipe - Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas - this week, so we're interested to see how it goes.
• Edler East is happy with how they're doing with their budgeting as a companionship. They're sticking to their budgets and living within their finances - an important skill to learn when you're living away from home.
• The next Transfers is on Monday 23rd August. Elder East would be happy to stay, but he'd like to be able to help reopen some of the country areas like Mildura, Katherine, Kunnunnura or Alice Springs to missionaries.

Adelaide Airport Lunch with Dad - 17th May 2021

I emailed President Marquis prior to recently going over to Western Australia, requesting:

President Marquis,

I will be flying between Perth and Canberra on Monday 17th May and will have a 4.5hr stopover in Adelaide between 11:30am and 4pm. 

Would it be possible for me to catch up with Elder East and his companions and to take them to a short lunch (assuming he is still in Adelaide post the 12th May missionary intake)?

I understand if it’s not allowed, but thought I would ask and see if it was possible. 

Thanks for all you are doing for Elder East and the other missionaries,

President Marquis responded back:

Thank you for reaching out. I’m sure a short “reunion” at the airport would be a boost to Elder East. If he does not feel it would be a distraction, I’m happy to have him meet you at the airport. There are restaurants in the airport terminal and there is also one just off the main baggage claim area in the Atura Hotel which is connected to the airport. I’ll leave it to you to talk with him about this and to coordinate the details. I do not know yet whether he will be impacted by the transfer next week but it is the case that even if he were, he’d still be serving in Adelaide as all our outlying areas are currently closed except Darwin and I do not anticipate any changes in Darwin on 12 May.

Sister Marquis and I love Elder East and are grateful to you and Sister East for raising up such a valiant and noble son. He is a true blessing to the AAM.

Following the approval from President Marquis, we arranged to meet up at the airport at noon on Monday 17th May.

I arrived at Adelaide Airport from Perth about 11:30am on the Monday morning, and received a message from Elder East just after noon that they had arrived. We quickly found each other and I was introduced to his two companions - Elder Brown, and his new trainee, Elder Davey from Rockhampton in Queensland.

I treated all three to a lunch of gourmet salads from Soul Origin at the Airport and we spent our time chatting. Whilst in Perth I had grabbed a bunch of Magic The Gathering booster packs as a gift for Elder East. I know that he often plays the game with other missionaries during their spare time on P Days. He was quite happy with what I'd bought him.

It was great seeing Elder East. He looks like he's lost some of the weight that he'd put on - he is trying to be conscious of his health. More importantly, he carried the Spirit with him and he sounded and acted like somebody who has been set apart as one representing the Saviour Jesus Christ and who is there to serve others.

It was great to spend time seeing him again after 11 months. It was only an hour of time spent with him and his companions, but it was an awesome time to treasure until we see him in person again in mid-2022.

Transfers - 19th April 2021 - New Campanion: Elder Brown

We got a quick text from Elder East on Monday. Elder East is staying for another transfer in Onkaparinga Ward, but his companion, Elder Beaumont-Tafua has been transferred out. His new companion is Elder Brown. We know that Elder Brown has previously spoken about Elder Brown from trade-offs that he's had with him. We know that Elder Brown brought out some small tabletop games on his mission, so I suspect this will be a very geeky companionship. :) 

Elder East had originally commented that he wouldn't mind being transferred up to Darwin or training, so we'll see if those things happen in the future, but for now, he and Elder Brown are joint Zone Leaders.

Video Chat - 02nd December 2020 - Lots of Trade-Offs

No district BBQs on P-Day this week, but some of the district did go bowling ... but we weren't sent any photos. It was a busy week for them.

They had two lots of trade-offs during the week. Elder East says that he quite enjoys doing trade-offs. On Thursday and Friday they traded off with Elder Brown and Elder Reeves. Elder East was with Elder Brown, the mission's newest trainee in their area whilst Elder Tukukino went up to Elder Reeves' area. Over the Sunday and Monday they then had trade-offs with Elder Nalesoni and his companion. Elder Nalesoni was Elder East's companion during their initial quarantine period. 

Elder East says that Elder Nalesoni is a lot less reserved than when he first came into the mission field but still isn't overly confident, but that it was good to see him starting to open up more. Elder East also commented that Elder Brown is a bit of a games enthusiast and had a couple of small card games to play in the evening before bedtime - Fort and Here To Slay. Elder East is usually up for a game at any time.

They have another trade-off scheduled for the coming week (Thursday and Friday) with the Elders in the Onkaparinga Ward. He did also say they were having trade-offs with the Sister Missionaries on Monday, but I'm going to assume that he was joking.

Elder East said that they got to give a lot of service during the last week including to an elderly lady who has cancer. They spent time working in her garden with some of her friends.

Elder East commented that they are struggling with their own investigators - not many of them are progressing spiritually at this time. They did have one gentleman at Church but have some concerns about his progression and note that there are a lot of people with mental health concerns in the area.

Elder East asked if Mum knew an Elder Varcoe on her mission. She didn't, but I did. Turns out he has passed away and that his widow has remarried and is in their Ward. They had dinner with the family during the week - it's a large blended family with 8 kids. One of Elder Varcoe's sons is currently preparing to go on his mission.

Elder East and Mum talked about the study that Elder East is doing. He finished the Book of Mormon again about a month ago and has been focusing on a lot of General Conference talks - mainly President Nelson's talks, as well as bits and pieces from the Book of Mormon. He says that he's also trying to do some study around mental health too given the prevalence in the area. 

Some other minor points from the discussion:

• He got a haircut again this P-Day. Fast-growing hair is a family curse.
• Mum is trying to convince Elder East for him and his companion to go and get a Santa photo together. Elder East doesn't sound too keen on the idea.
• For Christmas, Elder East would like a new short-sleeve button-up shirt or a tie. It sounds like Mum might end up getting him a Hawaiian shirt. Apparently, his preference is for a dark base but with bright colours - perhaps floral.
• Transfers are in two weeks. He would prefer to remain in his companionship and area, but if things did change, he'd like to have one of the newer missionaries as a companion rather than being the young one.
• We found out about the package that he had been working on on P-Days to send to Kendal.