Video Chat - 29th November 2021 - Training During Zone Conferences

 Another busy week for Elder East. We got to speak to him early on P Day and he gave us a run down of his past week.

Tuesday of last week was the Firle Zone Conference which Darwin also joined in via Zoom. The plan was for Elder Evans and himself to start off the training after which President Johansson would then take the remainder of the session. President Johansson ended up having to take a phone call though leaving them to do all of the training. The topic was Teaching with Power & Authority. Elder East said that it went well. 

Wednesday was spent contacting and talking with remote Ward & Branch Councils throughout the mission as well as getting to teach a lesson with a recent convert.

Thursday was the Modbury Zone Conference where they once again were involved in training and teaching with the missionaries in the Zone. Elders Brown & Rea (his old companion and his last trainee) were called as the new Zone Leaders for the Zone on Thursday after Zone Conference.

Missionary Leadership Council was held on Friday where they worked with the Elders and Sisters in leadership roles. The MLC also included involvement with the Pacific Area Social media Council which was a Zoom meeting chaired by leaders in Salt Lake City. Elder East commented that he saw Sister Page, serving in Stromlo Ward during the meeting. He said that he also got chatting with Sister Malu, another missionary from Canberra, about things back at home.

Later on Friday, they got to return and visit the recent convert again that they taught on Tuesday and got to spend another time teaching her, but also with her kids this time as well. 

Saturday was spent helping to move missionaries around as a result of some more companionship changes.

On Sunday they attended Church at Firle Ward. They had the opportunity to bless the sacrament as many of the youth were away.

Elder East says that the coming week should be less hectic. They have one more Zone Conference, to do which will happen on Tuesday (30th Nov), whilst Thursday is a planning day. They have to help President Johansson plan out the mission calendar for 2022.

Two of Elder East's previous companions headed home this week, Elder Kennach and Elder Cooke. Elder Kennach was having to do a long trek to get home, Flying Adelaide to Perth to Dubai to Auckland. All up they have seven missionaries heading home in the near future and only two trainees coming in.

A few other notes from our discussion:

• Elder East is getting a South Australian driver's licence. Because the mission covers areas in SA, NT, VIC, NSW and WA they have to cross borders reasonably frequently, and having a local licence will make things easier during Covid times.
• In doing this he checked how many demerit points he has. because he's still only a P plater, the two fines he's received means he only has a single demerit point left. he says that he's been driving extra cautiously.
• He commented that he received the Dice Advent Calendar that we sent him, but is yet to receive the Christmas decorations that Elissa has sent to him.
• One of the enws sitser missioanries is a "D&D geek". He'll appreciate having somebody to geek out with.
• He mentioned that he has had a lot of members try and joke about his surname during his mission  ... but he's heard them all several times over by now.
• Elder East has been focusing on journal writing recently. He hasn't written much in his journal up to now but does have three notebooks of notes from meetings, conferences, spiritual thoughts and impressions he's received and so on. 

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. 

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.

Elder East Departs For the Mission Field!

Having only got confirmation on Wednesday afternoon that he was leaving on the Friday, Thursday was a day of packing and getting ready. President Stuart coming by on the Thursday night to set apart Seth again. We arranged to dial in Adam's parents via phone and Elissa's parents via Skype to listen in to the setting apart.

We've got some notes about what was said in the setting apart, but we'll post them up later on.

On Friday morning we went out and did some last-minute shopping for things he needed, including getting a suit bag in place of a second suitcase.

At Elder East's request, we grabbed Butter Chicken wraps from Desi Aroma in the South.Point food court as his last pre-mission meal. Due to the pandemic restrictions in place we had to bring them back home to eat though.

Around the shopping and lunch, Seth was doing last-minute preparations such as setting his phone up with the missionary SOE as well as doing some last-minute online courses.

Then there were a few last-minute photos (and farewells to the cats) before we left for the airport at 3pm. (He won't be happy with me putting up the photo of him and Minori due to the funny face he's pulling ...)

Then it was a matter of checking in his bags and waiting to board at 4pm. We were surprised at how many people were still at the airport and traveling. A lot less than usual, but a lot more than expected.

When it was time to go, there weren't any tears, but there were hugs, and Elder East was finally on his way. We waved to him as he crossed the airbridge to the plane, and stayed until his plane took off.

As we left the airport and went home we followed his flight online until he safely landed in Adelaide at 6:03pm Canberra time. We look forward to seeing his photo go up on the "Arriver's Section" of the AAM blog.

Being Set Apart as a Missionary

President Michael Stuart came over at 8:30pm on Wednesday night to Set Apart Seth as a missionary. Being Set Apart is the formal start of him being a missionary. President described it as being Set Apart from the sins and concerns of the world.

We arranged to have Elissa’s parents join us via a video call, whilst we had my parents listen in over the phone. President Stuart did the actual ordinance whilst I assisted. We made some quick notes of what was said in the blessing afterwards. These included:

• Being able to Obedient, and understanding Obedience as the first law of heaven
• Of having protection, of angels going before him
• To have Inspiration
• To have Health
• He will want for nothing
• To know that people are specifically waiting to hear him
• To know that Heavenly Father loves him

Afterwards, there was time for some hugs and photos before Seth settled down into his new room on the bottom floor for the start of his MTC experience.