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.).

Photos from Quarantine - Bread Nachos & Scrambled Brains

Elder East uploaded some photos to our shared drive today. Because it's P-day we also got a chance to have a video chat with him and he explained them to us. Again, we're expecting an email with more detail from him but will add some notes about the photos and other things we discussed.

Life continues on with the AAM-MTC whilst they are in quarantine. As they're in quarantine, they have had a senior missionary couple drop groceries off to them when they first arrived. The first photo is of a "feast" they cooked up last Sunday night. They're not used to managing a kitchen and discovered that the chicken wings they were going to cook had gone off, and the 3 kgs of chicken breasts they had were only good for another day. Consequently they had a large cook-up on the Sunday night - chicken stroganoff (cooked by Elder East), chow mein, potato salad and mash potato.

They must have managed to make short work of all the food, as Monday night's dinner was Elder East's Nacho Bread™. His secret recipe involves bread, oil, taco seasoning and cheese ...

On Tuesday the Elders had to go and get Covid-19 tests as a part of their quarantine procedures. Knowing that I'd gone through the procedure, Elder East messaged me briefly on Monday about what the procedure involved. I said two tests, one involving sticking a long cotton bud to get a swab from the back of your throat, and one to get deep inside your nose. I said that the one inside the nose is the one that tends to cause the most discomfort.

I messaged Elissa to let her know about the impending test. Elissa must have messaged Elder Reeves' mum as he apparently got a message from her 5 minutes later saying "Enjoy getting your brains scrambled' in relation to the nose swab.

Elder East said it was a long process to get tested. A 40-minute drive to the venue, a one and a half hour wait to be seen, waiting for all to get their tests done and then the 40-minute drive back. Hopefully, they all come back negative. We were sent a photo of Elders East and Reeves waiting for their tests.

We're still waiting for our weekly email to arrive ...

The First Video Chat - 22nd July 2020

Elder East took the opportunity of video chatting with us during his first P Day (Wed 22nd July).

Here are a few dot points that provide some additional information to his weekly email.

• Their flat is a three-bedroom ground floor unit in the suburb of Klemzig. They all sleep in one room, and the other two rooms are done up for studying.
• The other new missionaries believe that the AAM Mission President is stricter with the rules than in some other missions.
• They've been busy undertaking the AAM MTC that the mission had set out for them. They have two Zoom Meetings per day - one with the Mission President & his wife, whilst the second one has had different people each time. 
• They got the chance to hold their own Sacrament meeting last Sunday.
• As a part of the AAM MTC, each of the missionaries will have to give three talks over the two week period.
• Seth is looking forward to trying to cook chicken stroganoff - his flat does have a slow cooker :) He helped one fo the other missionaries cook home-made hamburgers & chips over the weekend
• The three Polynesian Elders in the flat cover the three major Polynesian peoples - Elder Roberts is Maori, Elder Ma'a is Samoan and his companion Elder Nalesoni is Tongan.  
• There are apparently some Mandarin-speaking wards in Adelaide, so there's a chance he could end up serving in a language ward.
• He accidentally left his sneakers at home, but we've since mailed them to him (along with some treats.) He hadn't received them as of yet.

He did also text us later in the day for advice as he'd managed to burn his thumb and it was quite painful.

The First Email Home - 22nd July 2020

Hello East Family,

My flight was really good, nice and short only about 2 hours and I just looked out the window for most of it. I did have an exit row seat so I may have fallen asleep for a small bit.

When I arrived I had to get screened by the police which was a bit intimidating but they were all chill so it was all good in the end.

Quarantine isn't too bad.  We're all sharing one room and the other rooms are turned into studying and class rooms. We're all getting along really well, I'll talk about the Elders later. The flat is also really good. We didn't get central heating fixed until Tuesday but we've had plenty of space heaters to keep us warm. We probably won't have flats this nice in the field.

Food is pretty good. So far we've all taken turns cooking and everything's been edible so far. We had a lot of essentials stocked for us when we got there and we got a delivery Sunday with a lot more items (including hot chocolate which I was going through withdrawals for). We actually do have a slow cooker so I'm seeing if our ingredients list gets approved so I can make a chicken stroganoff.

There are five Elders in total. My companion is Elder Nalosoni, he's the big fellow in the pictures. He's pretty quiet in general but we've had some great moments during companionship study. He was originally called to the Philippines.

I can say this about all the Elders, we're all pretty funny guys with a great sense of humor. The other elders are in a tripanionship, there is Elder Reeves who is Kendall's brother. He's got a lot of missionary friends and a lot of experience. He was originally called to the Sendai (Tokyo North) Mission in Japan. Elder Roberts is the longest-serving of the Elders as he was called to Samoa and served there for two months before coming back home. He is also the district leader. Elder Ma'a is the final Elder, he was called to the Ivory Coast.

I am the youngest by age and calling date. I am the only Elder actually called to Adelaide and I am also the only Elder not endowed. Apparently, I'm one of the first missionaries in a while who has actually been called to Adelaide.

The MTC experience here has been amazing and so much better than the online MTC. We've got stuff to do from 8am to 9pm and it's all organised with breaks so that it all works really well.
It definitely makes up for the lost time in the NZ MTC.

Love, Elder East

An Interruption in Transmission

Elder East was due to go into the mission field this Wednesday, the 1st July. By last weekend we still hadn't heard anything about his travel details. Our Stake President, President Stuart, rang us on Sunday to let us know that many of those who are going into the mission field at the moment were only getting their travel details about two days before they travel. He was expecting that we would know by Monday as to whether Elder East would be going to Adelaide this week or not. If we hadn't heard on Monday he would chase up for us, but he hadn't been told anything either way.

Elissa emailed the AAM mission president on Sunday evening with some admin questions, but also mentioned that we still hadn't heard re Elder East's travel plans. President Marquis replied back on Monday, advising that the Mission had liaised with the Area Presidency and determined that the 1st July intake would be deferred until the 20th July when SA's borders were scheduled to open. He apologised that obviously we'd been missed on the communications about that. He did say that with the various changes that are going on, if the borders came down earlier then we'd likely see the missionaries heading earlier as well.

So, by Monday afternoon we were resigned to Elder East being delayed in getting out to the mission field. We spoke with President Stuart who arranged to come by on Tuesday evening to release Elder East as a missionary. He will then be set apart again when he's due to leave for the mission field.

Earlier this afternoon (Tues 30th Jun) there was more news that might complicate things even further. Victoria has been having a large increase in Covid-19 cases over the last week, and subsequently, South Australia has decided to cancel the scheduled opening of its borders on the 20th of July.  We don't know yet what that means for Elder East. As I speak, he's currently being interviewed by President Stuart for his temporary release. We just don't know how long it's going to be for.

MTC Companion and District Photos

Elder East has shared with us some photos of him and his MTC companion, and his MTC district.

Elissa got permission to put the photos up on a Facebook group (Missionary Mommas). People were quite interested to see how the online MTC was going, with Elissa's post gathering over 200 likes.

The [Virtual] Missionary Training Centre

Elder East officially started his virtual MTC on Thursday 11th June.  The downstairs living room has had a desk setup for him in the bay window, and there are Church related posters up around on the walls. (Seth was worried that he’d be distracted by all of the Star Wars stuff!)

The MTC instructors are based in New Zealand and teach missionaries from across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Most of the missionaries currently in the MTC are Kiwis or Islanders. There’s only one other Aussie in the current group – an Elder Goodwin from Perth. (Trivia – his Dad  was a former Zimbabwean Test and One-Day International cricketer, whilst Elder Goodwin played for the WA 2nd XI.) Apparently the Goodwins and Elissa’s parents know each other. Seth’s MTC companion is Elder Lemoa from Samoa. Elder Lemoa was originally assigned to Papua New Guinea but because of the Covid-19 travel restrictions, he will be serving in Samoa until his mission reopens to foreign missionaries.

The standard teaching hours for the MTC are 10am-1pm and 2 pm-5pm on weekdays - New Zealand time. Because the MTC covers a number of timezones, it makes for some interesting timings. Seth’s standard MTC hours are 8-11am and Noon-3pm. Elder Goodwin starts at 6am in the morning whilst Elder Lemoa is starting at 11am in the morning.  Seth does an hour of companionship study with Elder Lemoa each weekday. They’re also meant to be studying together on the weekends, but we believe that Elder Lemoa, like some of the other Islanders, is getting his Internet access at the local chapel. Seth also does an hour of personal study each day and half an hour of exercise. He’s actually ended up with more free time than he expected during the MTC. We have had a couple of family games in the evenings.

We’ve also made some token attempts at giving him a New Zealand experience food-wise seeing as he’s missing out on actually getting to New Zealand. His first dinner in the MTC was “fush and chups” (New Zealand hoki to be exact). We supplemented this with New Zealand drinks and snacks. I’d been buying up cans and bottles of L&P from IGAs over the preceding weeks, as well as grabbing Kiwi snacks like Rashuns.

Elder East seems to be enjoying the classes and the instruction that is being provided, even if it is being done virtually.

Mission Prep - The Final Countdown

Earlier this week was the last chance to get things sorted out before Seth started in the Missionary Training Centre. Normally he would have flown over to the MTC in New Zealand, but the Covid-19 travel restrictions meant that he would be doing the MTC classes virtually from home.

With Monday being a public holiday, things got started on Tuesday where Elissa, Seth and I met down at the bank in Tuggeranong to sort out his bank accounts. Half of Seth’s mission money was put into a 12 month term deposit, whilst Elissa and I were made signatories to the rest of Seth’s accounts. This will allow us to pay his monthly expenses whilst he’s on his mission. In the afternoon Seth had to head down to the pharmacy to pick up a Hepatitis A vaccine. It was the last vaccine he needed to have as a part of his medical checks. Seth would then be spending much of his spare time over the next couple of days sorting through and packing away the stuff in his room.

Things really started to ramp up on Wednesday. In the morning Seth had a 90 minute virtual MTC orientation in preparation for his starting the following day.  Straight after this he had to head on down to the medical centre in Tuggeranong to be given the Hepatitis A vaccine. A surprise rocked up in the mail during the day – his missionary tags – one clip-on, and one magnetic tag. I texted an image through to Elissa – which got her emotional. It was her “This is happening” moment – Seth’s going on a mission!

For dinner Elissa made up one of Seth’s favourites – Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas, as we then waited for the Stake President, President Michael Stuart, to come to set Seth apart. I’ll write that up as a post in itself. After being set apart, Seth went and created a post that he went and put on his social media accounts to announce the start of his mission.