Video Chat - 10th March 2022 - Elder Ma'a Is The New AP and Elder Nattress' GA Tour

 P-Day this week had been moved from Monday 7th March to Thursday 10th March due to the mission tour. Despite the extended time period, it was a relatively short chat about what had happened mission wise over the previous 10 days. 

Transfers resulted in Elder Evans being transferred up to Darwin as Zone Leader for the Newly created Alma Zone in the Northern Territory. Elder East's new companion is Elder Ma'a who was part of the group that arrived and quarantined together with Elder East back in 2020. Elder Ma'a is from Sydney. Elder East says that Elder Ma'a has had a steep learning curve with all of the AP work over the last week.

First up, the transfers on Tuesday 1st March were impacted by the Alice Springs missionaries missing their flight down to Adelaide. The next flight down they could go on was Friday 4th March. This had a flow-on effect throughout many of the other missionary companionships that were changing during transfers and caused a lot of extra work. Elder East said that the last of the "ripples" were resolved the day that we were chatting - Thursday 10th March. 

Friday 4h March featured a whole mission Leadership Council with President Johansson, with another Misisoanry Leadership Council run by Elder Brett Nattress, the General Authority from the First Quorum of the Seventy (and 1st Counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency) who was doing a mission tour. Elder East said that they spent a lot of Sunday night doing reports for Elder Nattress. The APs were also involved in leading sessions at both MLCs, covering the topics of accountability and goal setting.

Elder K. Brett Nattress

On Tuesday 8th March there was a Zone Conference and mini-MLC held. There was meant to be another MLC on Wednesday but Elder Nattress' flights were changed by the airline at the last minute.

On Wednesday 9th March Elders East and Ma'a had a lesson with a person who was referred from the Sisters in the City Branch. It turned out that it had been arranged for Elder Paul Lekias, an Area Authority that knows us and Elder East, to came along as a friendshipper to the lesson. Elder East said that it was great having Elder Lekias there and that there were times they let him lead the discussion. He was very positive and very bold.

Elder East shared with us a mission video that he was a part of that would be posted on social media later in the day. Besides introducing the video, he also speaks some lines of Samoan in the video as well. We know he'd been trying to learn some Samoan earlier in his mission, Apparently Sister Johansson helped him get his pronunciation correct and the Samoans we know reckon he did a pretty good job.

https://fb.watch/bOJZEnVRkv/

Video Chat - 3rd January 2022 - Covid Hits the Mission

Catching up with my notes of chats with Elder East so there will be several weeks' worth of chats being posted up in a short period of time. We were away for a holiday in Tasmania as well as having a  week in isolation, so it's been a month since I've posted. This particular entry was from when we chatted on Monday 3rd January and covers the previous week. 

The big event this week was Transfers ... and of covid hitting the mission. The previous Tuesday (28th Dec) was Transfers, which included three Elders going home of whom two had been Elder East's companions. (Elders Roberts and Read.) On the Monday evening, there was the traditional Family Home Evening for those leaving at the Mission President's home. Normally the APs would be invited too, but Covid restrictions meant it was limited and they weren't able to attend. 

On Tuesday when they took the leaving missionaries to the airport they discovered that Sister Hall's flight had been canceled and this hadn't been passed on to the mission. So, it was now a case of urgently trying to rebook a flight for her to be able to get home.

On Wednesday they had their new missionaries arrive to be picked up at the airport ... well at least some of them did. Travelers are meant to have a negative Covid test within 48 hours of going into South Australia.  The Covid test for one of the missionaries due to fly in had come back positive. They had another two who were due to come in but their Covid test results hadn't come back in time. 

In the latter part of the week, one of the missionaries was feeling unwell and subsequently returned a positive Covid result. That particular missionary companionship had had lunch with four other missionary companionships after transfers on Tuesday. Those companionships all went into isolation. The APs were required to go and help provide some food drop-offs for those companionships. 

Eventually, all of the mission were asked to isolate as a precaution. Elder East commented that as a part of his responsibilities he'd effectively had contact with every single missionary in the mission during the previous week.

On Saturday (New Years Day) he and Elder Evans went to get Covid tested, waiting two hours before being told that the centre was now full and that they'd missed the cut off. They eventually managed to get tested on Sunday. As of our chat, they were both still in isolation and waiting for their test results to come back. 

Some other notes from our chat:

• Elder East was in a video released by the mission on Social media during the week (Fri 31st Jan.) It featured several people in the Temple grounds talking about New Year's resolutions to be baptised and to attend the temple. Elder East commented to us that he didn't know they were going to film a video and he was in his "everything else needs to be washed" clothes at the time. 

• Missionaries went out to Mildura during this transfer. Subsequently, the APs missionary responsibility has changed from Mildura to the northern half of Firle Ward.
• The AAM started up a private Facebook group during the week for family and friends of AAM missionaries to hear news of what's going on in the mission. "Australia Adelaide Mission - President Johansson"
• Cyclone Seth was causing damage on Australia's eastern coast. Elder's East's mum told him to stop it and get back to SA. 

• They are having problems with their computer system that acts as the area books for missionaries. With the reorganization of several areas, the details of their teaching contacts have disappeared from the system. They are contacting support in Utah for help to try and find out what's wrong.  
• Elder East sent us through some photos of one of their meetings earlier in the week. 

Come Unto Christ in Adelaide - "Traditional vs Biblical" Christmas Video

Elder East took part in the shooting of a Christmas video for the Australia Adelaide Mission which was posted back on the 14th of December. 

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 - 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. 

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.