Video Call - 6th June 2022 - Farewell P-Day Celebration

 It was Elder East's last P Day with the other missionaries. The following P Day he would be heading into the mission home and getting ready to go home. His Zone had an activity day as a farewell for him and a birthday celebration for Elder Burgess. 

Elder East did try calling us from the activity but there was so much noise we couldn't hear what he was saying. We ended up cutting the call short, with Elder East letting us know that he'd try calling us later in the day. Unfortunately, that didn't eventuate. 

The little we did hear him say was that it had been a hectic week, and that President Johansson had been in the Northern Territory for most of it. 

Later in the day we did see a video from one of the other missionaries from Canberra who was serving in the AAM. The video had footage from their P Day activity. I've tried to grab some screenshots of the video below with some added commentary. 

The first shot is of Elder East getting an egg splattered on his head. They appeared to be playing some sort of game where the losers got wet or got hit with eggs. This egg hit was a sneak attack though ;)

Photo of the missionaries having lunch. You'll notice that Elder East has changed out of his wet/egg-splattered clothes. 

Trying to eat a donut suspended from a string without using your hands.

Elder Ma'a and Sister Malu have been making banners as a farewell gift for some of the missionaries as they complete their missions. This si Elder East's banner.

The banner can also be used as a cape apparently ...

Singing 'God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again."

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 - 11th October 2021 - Elder Haycock Comes and Goes

It was a busy week for Elder East. He flew down to Adelaide for transfers on Tuesday morning (5th Oct). knowing that his trainee wasn't arriving straight away. He would go out to join Elders Brown and Burgess in Tea Tree Gully Ward. It would turn out that his trainee, Elder Haycock, from Perth, would be arriving the following day.

Wednesday was Elder East's grandmother's funeral, and he had permission from President Johannson to join in watching the broadcast of the funeral service and burial. Elder Haycock's flight arrived whilst the funeral was on, so Elder East didn't go to meet him at the airport. They then spent the rest of Wednesday doing training and admin with Elder Haycock, staying overnight in Adelaide with Elder Reeves and his companion.

On Thursday they then drove up to Port Pirie and spent the day cleaning up the missionary flat from the previous Elders as well as unpacking and setting up their own stuff.

On Friday they started to focus on more training for Elder Haycock, including watching a bunch of videos that are part of the training. To do this they went to the chapel to be able to use the internet connection for the video streaming. After finishing in the evening they went back to their flat, and as they were trying to get into their flat, the front door key broke. OK ... time to call the mission office to find out if there's a spare key. Unfortunately Elder East realised his phone only had a 3% charge left before it would go flat. 

They did manage to get in touch with the mission office but had to spend Friday night in a motel with nothing but the clothes on their backs. On Friday morning they then had to drive halfway down to Adelaide to meet up with the APs who had a spare key to their flat at the mission office. 

Whilst all of this was going on, Elder Haycock had received a call to let him know that his elderly father had been admitted to hospital. His parents are not overly active in the Gospel and his Mum, who is from the Philippines has little in the way of a local support network. She was asking that Elder Haycock come home from his mission for support. 

The Elders went to the chapel for the Saturday evening broadcast of general conference. During the evening  Elder Haycock was able to contact his father who also requested that he come home to help. Elder Haycock spoke to President Johansson and then his Bishop and Stake President back in Perth. He made the decision that he would head back home to assist even though he wanted to be staying out in the mission field. 

On Sunday morning they went to the general conference broadcast and managed to catch up with Craig, a gentleman who describes himself as a "professional investigator." They were invited along with Craig to a member's house for lunch. She was an older lady who has a reputation for unusual food recipes from old cookbooks. Elder East advised that lunch included such things as curried bananas and a salad made from rockmelon, capsicum, onions and marshmallows. 

After their meal, they spent Sunday afternoon repacking their bags and then heading down to Adelaide. They had dinner with the Port Pirie branch president in Kadina, a town about an hour south of Port Pirie on the way to Adelaide. After dinner, they were able to teach a lesson to the Branch President's family before making their way down to Adelaide to stay with the Playford Elder's overnight.

Now, on P Day, Elder East was with other missionaries at a P Day activity in Fremont Park. Elder Haycock would be flying home on Tuesday (12th Oct). Both Elders East and Haycock said that they knew that it was sad for him to be returning home after having just arrived but they knew it was the right decision. As the entire situation unfolded, Elder East said that things just kept "happening" but he felt calm and OK about how things were progressing. Elder Haycock wanted to stay out in the mission field but wanted to be able to return and help as well. He is wanting to return back to the mission field when he can. 

My personal opinion is that sometimes we shouldn't second guess the Lord. Maybe Elder Haycock will get the chance to return quickly and enjoy a full two-year mission. Maybe all that the Lord required from Elder Haycock was to prepare and show that he was ready to serve a mission. Having shown his willingness to do so, maybe the Lord knows that his responsibilities now lay with looking after his parents for a long time. Maybe his service will fall as a mixture between the two. As long as we try and seek Heavenly Father's will for us and try to align ourselves to it, we will be an instrument in the Lord's hands to help others in His way.

A few other tidbits of information about Elder Haycock:

• He plays gridiron competitively back in Perth. He had been planning to go to the USA to play gridiron before Covid hit. 
• Elder Haycock knew both Holly Olde and Connor Dowe, people that Elder East knew from Perth
• Elder Haycock and Elder East both attended FSY in Perth in 2018. They were in different groups, but did know some of the same people from FSY.
• Elder East says that Elder Haycock was really into cars.
• Even though they only served together a short time, they got on really well, and Elder East would love to catch up with Elder Haycock back in Perth after both of their missions are finished.

Video Chat - 27th September 2021 - Territory Wildlife Park and Bad News About Nanny

We had received the news on the Sunday night that Elder East's paternal grandmother had been put into palliative care and was only expected to last a day or two before passing. We notified the mission office about the circumstances and advised that we'd be letting Elder East know on P Day. We didn't want to delay notifying him in case she passed away quickly, we wanted him to be prepared. 

Contacting him early on P Day, he told us he wasn't free to speak at the time. The Senior Missionary couple was taking the Elders and four of their grandkids to the Territory Wildlife Park. The park is a natural habitat zoo in Berry Springs, about 45 minutes south of Darwin and they were currently on their way driving to the Park.

Once they arrived at the Park we were able to have a quick call and let Elder East know about his grandmother. We know that it's something he would want to silently contemplate through the day.

The Park that they were visiting was essentially a big zoo that showcases the NT environments The Park featured a forest, wetlands, a coastal exhibit, a nocturnal house, a lagoon, an aviary and even an aquarium.  Elder East particularly liked the Birds of Prey show that showcased eagles but also included other large birds such as emus and storks. He said that the show included an eagle that cracked open an egg using a rock, a little-known natural behavior for the eagle in the wild which the show highlights. 

Elder East sent us through a few photos from the day.

Going back over the events of the week, the Elders flew back from Alice Springs on Tuesday (21st Sep) morning after which they then met up with Elder East's Great Uncle Ross who was visiting Darwin. They went out for lunch at a nearby burger joint.  He said it was good meeting up with Uncle Ross. The rest of Tuesday involved catching up with P Day activities like shopping that they weren't able to do due to still being in Alice Springs.

Elder East had his second covid vaccine shot on Thursday (23rd Sep). He was fortunate not to get too serious side effects but was very tired on Friday. Elder Roberts was scheduled to have his second covid vaccination on Saturday (2nd Oct).

On Thursday evening they attended the Branch Coordination Council. Afterward, when heading to their car they had an inebriated local approach them wanting them to drive him home about 20-30 minutes away. Missionaries aren't allowed to take other people in their cars so they politely declined. The local then wanted money for food.  They said that they would go get him some at which point he tried to get into their car. They politely stopped him from doing so and then left and got him some McDonalds. When they returned with food for him he seemed surprised that they'd actually returned. 

Friday was spent Zooming in to the Missionary Leadership Council that was being held down in Adelaide. 

On Saturday they provided some service to a less-active member by mowing their lawn. They ere pleasantly surprised when the member turned up to Church the following day.

On Saturday evening the two branches held a combined pot luck dinner and dance which the missionaries from both branches attended. One of their investigators attended the evening as they'd been invited by a member friend. Elder East said that he danced with a number of the elderly ladies during the evening, as well as joining in the Nutbush

Some other dot points from our discussion:

• The Elders bought a Magic The Gathering card collection from somebody they were working with which they'll split between themselves. 
• After having been good for a long time, they've eaten a lot of fast food over the last couple of weeks. Elder East says on the plus side that he now has enough winning stickers from the McDonald's Monopoly promotion that he doesn't have to pay next time they go to McDonalds. 
• His trainer Elder De Guzman managed to get home during the week, presumably on an out-of-cycle repatriation flight back home to the  Philippines. Elder East was disappointed he wasn't able to farewell him.
• We spent a bit of time talking about how Nanny (his grandmother) was doing and how her health had deteriorated over the last week.
• Transfers is next week and he thinks he'll likely be transferred. 
• The Elders did a short video which was shared on the mission social media pages during the week. They filmed the video down in Alice Springs.

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 - 21st July 2021 - Pavlovas, Videos and Snakes

It was only a quick chat this week, but we did at least get sent some more photos from Elder East.

The first photo is of Karen Boree. She was somebody I knew on my mission from Canberra - she was the daughter of the Ward Mission leader when I served in Woden Branch back in the early Nineties. She'd long ago married and moved away but had met Elissa and I when she was back visiting Canberra one time.  Elder East had also gotten to know one of her sons during the 2017 FSY that they'd both attended. Karen is in the Darwin Branch. They'd caught up whilst they were all helping at the Single Adult Convention that was being held in Darwin the previous weekend. Elder East commented that the SA Convention seemed to involve a lot of family history classes.

The next photo collage includes a family that they are teaching about the Gospel. Elder East says that the familyy also spontaneously feeds them. Apparently, most of their meal appointments with others tend to be spontaneous. The middle photo is a screenshot of a video they filmed to contribute to the Mission Facebook page.

I managed to download the video from Facebook ... it should hopefully be below.

The following picture is of the Ashtons,. Elder East said that the senior missionary couple that usually looks after the Darwin missionaries were down in Adelaide for the week, so the Ashtons looked after them for a bit.

The following picture is after their Branch Mission Correlation meeting with the Branch mission leader. The group includes the new Sister Missionary who is currently in Darwin for two weeks whilst Adelaide is under covid restrictions.

The following picture "... is just smoke, we get a lot of fires up here all around the place. This time we just figured we'd drive by it."

The new Sister Missionary is "Gluten Free, Dairy Free, and allergic to Apples, bananas, coconuts and cashews." Elder East decided to try and make a pavlova for her for the district P Day as they were going to have a district picnic. Elder East got some guidance from his Mum on how to cook the pavlova the night before. 

His comment at the end "It did sink a little in one spot and it cracked a bit but I'm impressed with it." Apparently, it tasted good and was popular.

He said that they had a good P Day with the picnic at the botanical gardens, followed by a trip to a museum. There was a fake snake in one of the trees in the park they were at, so they originally thought the following Black-Headed Python was fake too, until it started slithering towards them. He shared with us the following video.

President Johansson and the APs were meant to fly up on Friday (24th Jul) for District Conference, Zone Conference, and interviews but that was canceled due to Covid related border closures. Elder East commented that the missionaries have been volunteered to participate in the choir for District Conference.

Elder East said that they had their first Missionary Leadership Council with President Johansson (remotely of course.) He said that it was good, but Elder East was worried that President Johansson has gotten rid of the "white binder" - the local rules that President Marquis had put in place, but also introduced some new rules as well. (eg missionaries can't cut each other's hair.) As a Zone Leader, Elder East will have to help the missionaries transition to the new guidelines. 

Elder east commented that they're not doing much finding as a companionship at the moment as they're doing a lot of teaching instead.

Video Chat - 14th July 2021 - Staying in Darwin, Photos and Main Speaker at Church

The big news for the past week was that it was transfers and both Elder Evans and Elder East are staying together in Darwin which Elder East is quite happy about. In fact, there were only three transfers in the whole mission which were related to new missionaries. One of those was a new Sister missionary coming into the Palmerston Branch, a Sister Sullivan from Cowra, so they're now in a three-way. Elder East thinks she may have previously met her at the original FSY he went to in Sydney back in 2017.

Elder East sent us through a bunch of photos. 

This is a photo of the missionaries with a couple from Palmerston Branch back on the 27th June. This was just after the lockdown had been announced. With Church meetings having been canceled due to the lockdown, they were fortunate to be able to meet together for sacrament before returning for the lockdown

A random chicken they happened to find wandering the streets of Palmerston.

The senior missionary couple held flat inspections recently - and they jokingly gave awards/medals to the missionaries for keeping their various accommodation in good condition.

This was a photo of the P Day activity on 7th July. This was part of their 'Amazing Race" activity where they had to take photos of various things. Most of the companionships were colour coordinated.

Photos of the Elders studying on their balcony. Looks quite nice.

Above are photos from their District Council meeting that was held recently. The lady in the blue on the right is a Single Adult representative. She was there as the missionaries will be helping to run a Single Adult convention in Darwin over the weekend of the 18th and 19th July. 

There is a public golf course near their flat that they sometimes walk through when going places. They came across this turtle the other day. Elder East took a  photo as it reminded him of Fred, the turtle that we "turtle-sat" for a number of years.

Elder East was the final speaker at Church last week (11th July). He was meant to speak for 13-15 minutes on "Emulating Christ". They'd invited a number of people they were teaching along to see him speak. They were excited to see that two of the families that they'd invited come along (pictured in the above two photos.)

Elder East said that he went overtime in his talk. The Sister missionaries must have thought it was good though. They told him that he should be a Stake president based on that talk. It's not the first time sister missionaries have made that comment to him during his mission. Obviously, they think that he speaks well. 

They've been busy teaching during the past week - mainly over Zoom. They taught 2 lessons on the Sunday afternoon, 6 on Monday and another 7 on Tuesday. There was a busy week coming up too. They had Mission Correlation scheduled on Thursday, Mission Leadership Council on Friday and then helping with the Single Adult convention on Saturday and Sunday.

Elder East was also excited about a change that had been brought in by President Johansson. President had relaxed the rules a bit about what music missionaries could listen to, giving them more responsibility in choosing "uplifting" music, so we've got some requests from Elder East for a broader selection of music.