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.

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 - 4th August 2021 - Lots of Changes: Social Media, P Day Change and More

Another quick update from Elder East this week but he advised of some big changes within the mission, including:

• This would be the last P Day on a Wednesday. As of next week, the mission will be changing to having P Days on Mondays.
• Missionaries will no longer be able to go to the Temple except at the start and end of their missions. Due to the Adelaide temple being closed under Covid restrictions for much of the time he was in Adelaide, Elder East has only been to the Adelaide temple once so far. 
• The Darwin missionaries were going to trial doorknocking in the evenings, which was something that hasn't been done for a while.
• The hours of the standard day for the Darwin missionaries have been aligned to the standard 6:30am to 10:30pm day in Adeliade and most other missions. In Darwin it had previously been 6am to 10pm.
• The AAM would be becoming a social media mission. The missionaries would now have access to Facebook. Elder East spent some time making a more missionary-orientated profile for his Facebook account during the week. 

Elder East also let us know about some of the things that had happened during the week. 

On Friday Zone Conference was held down in Adelaide so the Darwin missionaries joined in via Zoom. Elder East and Evans provided training on resolving concerns and asking inspired questions as a part of one of the sessions.

On Saturday they provided 3-4 hours of service to different people along with the sister missionaries. At one home they helped move rocks in a garden. At another home, they mowed a backyard. They discovered however that there was broken glass in the long grass, so had to be careful of that.

Church on Sunday coincided with a Young Men's Camp that was being held so the numbers at Church were low.

On Tuesday Elder East was sick with a cold. It happened to coincide with it being Elder Evans' birthday, so Elder East took him out to McDonald's for lunch.

Elder East mentioned that they were given some donuts as well. I didn't note when, but ti was important enough for them to document via photo :)

A couple of final observations from Elder East. He commented that being able to use Facebook is a big thing for many of the missionaries. He says that he likes being able to befriend other missionaries, but he finds Facebook too much of a distraction. 

They are still doing a lot of teaching - helping a lot of people with concerns. They had a lesson scheduled for 5pm that P Day.