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 - 28th July 2021 - Darwin District Conference

 Once again, it was only a very quick chat with Elder East last P Day. He seems to enjoy spending time with his district / Zone on P Days rather than speaking to his parents :)

Much of the last week had been taken up with District Conference. On Friday they had a  missionary devotional with Elder Lekias, the Area Authority who was visiting Darwin for the District Conference. Elder Lekias knows our family and recognised Elder East as our son.

On the Friday night they had the regular branch sports night. On the Saturday they had a missionary and leadership session of District Conference during the afternoon. Elder East participated along with Sister Smith as "YSAs" as part of a discussion panel with Elder Lekias.

There were the usual Saturday evening and Sunday morning sessions of Conference as well. The missionaries were part of the choir for the Sunday session, performing two hymns - Master the Tempest is Raging, and Count Your Many Blessings.

On Tuesday they had interviews with President Johansson via Zoom. Elder East said that they covered a lot of general topics, as well as some coming changes ... but Elder East wouldn't say what those coming changes were.

Elder East mentioned that they'd also caught up with a Brother King and his family. They are moving from Canberra to Darwin. Brother King was actually Bishop of Woden Ward when I was Bishop of Tuggeranong Ward about 15 years ago. (The two wards met in the same chapel in Canberra.)

Video Chat - 26th May 2021 - Zone Conference and Stake Conference

Time for another update from the weekly video chat with Elder East.

Reflecting on his opportunity to go through the Temple on the previous P Day he said that it was a good experience, but he couldn't help shake the impression that his focus should be "out there" (ie doing missionary work), rather than "in here" (ie doing Temple work.)

They had Zone Conference the previous day. Elder East joked that the Marquis' are trunky, or at least ready to go home after their three years of service. Their personal effects have already been shipped home and they're currently living out of suitcases in a hotel. They have three grandchildren that they haven't met yet, and another one due soon.

The focus for Zone Conference was on teaching skills. This included remote training from Elder Bednar on talking about Gospel principles. They also broke into Zones for individual Zone training, which for Marion Zone meant training from Elder East. He mentioned that he didn't get to socialise that much during Zoen Conference compared to normal due to his training preparation, as well as focusing on chatting to several missionaries and a senior couple who were due to go home the following week.

He said that there was a surprise announcement during the last 15 minutes of the conference that they're going to be allowed to start tracting again. (ie door knocking.) Elder East is excited as this is another opportunity to be able to find people willing to hear the gospel. He's missing the fact that his Zone Leader and training responsibilities have reduced his opportunities to find people to teach.

The previous weekend they had Stake Conference and were happy to have one of their investigators at Stake Conference one of the members had helped bring him along. The Stake President had met them and their investigator before the meeting started and made a special effort of acknowledging the missionaries serving in the stake.

The regularly scheduled transfers are due to occur on Monday (31st May). Elder East reckons he wouldn't mind a change, as he's now been in the ward for over 4 months. At the same time, he'd be disappointed to miss seeing those whom they're teaching progress in the gospel.

A few final dot points from our discussion:

• He asked us if we had any MoTab music that he could have. It's one of the things they're allowed to listen to, and he didn't take any with him.
• They were going to be heading off to get a sewing needle later that afternoon. A member had offered to fix his bag that had broken, but they needed a stronger sewing needle to do so.
• They had a lesson scheduled to teach that evening as well as for each of the next three days.
• All three members of the companionship are doing cooking. They've learnt to buy frozen vegetables as fresh ones tend to get forgotten and go off.
• Edler Brown and Edler East are having to adjust to having different training styles.
• Elder East has been out on his mission for 349 days ...