Video Chat - 4th October 2021 - Transferred To Point Pirie via Tea Tree Gully Ward

The big news from Elder East was that, yes, he is being transferred. He will be heading down to train a new missionary out in Port Pirie. There is however a snag in that there are some issues with getting his trainee into the mission. Consequently Elder East would be flying down to Adelaide on Tuesday morning and then serving in a three-way companionship until his trainee arrived.  He would be joining Elders Brown & Burgess in Tea Tree Gully Ward. Elder East has previously served with Elder Brown back in Onkaparinga Ward. Elder Bianchi is a relatively green missionary from Huonville in Tasmania.

As much as Elder East is sad at leaving Darwin, he's happy to be serving in a regional town. The area also covers the Port Augusta and Whyalla Branches, but he doesn't know how much they'll get to go and work outside of Port Pirie. 

Elder East will no longer be Zone Leader, having been one for about 10 months. He thinks that training will be harder from a teaching point of view, but easier from a 'living" point of view than being a  Zone Leader.

Elder East is excited to see Elder Brown even though it's only until his trainee arrives. This will be the third three-way companionship he's had with Elder Brown.

This is only a very small transfer, with few missionaries moving and only two new missionaries coming into the mission. Elder Aiho - another of Elder East's old companions - finishes his mission before the next transfer so he's being moved into a three-way companionship, and his companion is being transferred up to Alice Springs. 

Last week they spent a bit of time with the Darwin Elders. The Darwin Elders are involved with community basketball, so they spent time playing basketball and talking to people on Tuesday afternoon, and then a full trade-off over the Thursday and Friday. Elder east was with Elder Nalesoni - another of his old companions.

Elder East said that they taught a lot of lessons throughout the week. They had lessons with most of the people they had been working with which went well. They had Camille, a less active recent convert, come along to Church which they were happy to see. Elder East knew about transfers before Church started so he was asked to share his testimony during the meeting. After Church they got to go and provide sacrament for a sister out on a property. Elder East was quite impressed that she had emus and peacocks roaming around her property.

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.

Video Chat - 7th July 2021 - Coming Out of Lockdown

It was only a quick call with Elder East this week. The Covid lockdown finished for the Darwin and Palmerston areas on Friday, however, they still weren't able to hold Church last Sunday, and many things were still very quiet. They are expecting Church to be held this coming Sunday (11th July). In fact, Elder East has a speaking assignment.

The main piece of news was that they met with their new mission president - President Johansson.  I realised that I didn't note what day it was and whether it was in person or via Zoom. Elder East said that all of the missionaries were together at the Darwin chapel. They held a group meeting with President Johansson between 11am to Noon, then lunch between Noon and 1pm, then followed by interviews with each of the individual missionaries. Of the 8 missionaries, Elder East was last to be interviewed, so he was there until 4:30pm. [Note: Elissa advised after I published this that the meetings and interviews were via Zoom/]

With President Johansson allowing districts and zones to get together each P Day the Darwin and Palmerston missionaries were doing a bunch of activities together including a chip lunch, an Amazing race activity involving photos, and a spicy noodle eating challenge. 

A few quick dot points from the discussion:

• President Johansson mentioned that he's been instructed not to transfer missionaries too often at the moment, so Elder East may spend a while in the Northern Territory.
• We did send Elder East some English Samoan vocabulary documents however he says that he probably needs an actual dictionary as he has lots of words, but needs to be able to understand participles.
• If Elder East doesn't get transferred during the next transfers (scheduled for 12-13th July) we'll arrange to send him some money so he and his companion can go to Aquascene on the 21st July P Day. Aquascene features large fish that come in at high tide to be hand-fed. I remember going there as a kid back in 1981.

Video Chat - 28th April 2021 - ANZAC Day and Birthday Surprises

Elder East started off our weekly video chat by letting us know that he had another companion – Elder Cooke. He was now in a three-way companionship. Their companionship got the call at 6:40am on Tuesday morning to be at the chapel by 9:30am for their scheduled interviews with President Marquis … and to pick up their new companion. Elder East thinks that their three-way companionship will only last for a couple of weeks as there are a bunch of new missionaries scheduled to arrive on May 12th.

Elder Cooke is from Brisbane (like most in the AAM) who came out into the mission in January. Elder East describes Elder Cooke as being a “White Poly” who is into games. In fact, Elder East reckons that he himself is the least "nerdy" member of their three-way companionship - funny noting that he is a self-confessed geek/nerd. 

A summary of the week:

On Thursday of last week they received an invite to Saturday dinner from the Mahina family in the ward.  When they got to the dinner on Saturday evening, Elder East was greeted with a surprise birthday combination of Star Wars and Lego 

On Saturday night, after the dinner, Elder East prepped all the ingredients for “Dad’s chilli recipe” ready for his birthday dinner on Sunday.

Sunday was also ANZAC Day, so they were up at 4:00am, left the flat at 4:40am and went to the Onkaparinga Memorial Gardens for the local ANZAC Day Dawn Service. I had organised tickets for them earlier in the week and emailed them through to Elder East after confirmation that they were allowed to attend.  They said that the service didn’t actually start til 5:50am, so they got there too early. Elder East says the service was good. He reckons that there were probably over 500 in attendance, and they did see some other members there at the service. 

Elder East cooked up the chilli in the morning after returning from the Dawn Service.

At church that day the Sacrament Meeting had a missionary theme, so Elder East was one of the speakers. His topic was “Feed My Sheep”. He said that he talked about how they were all there at Church because we have some level of love for the Saviour. Also, that one of the ways we can show love for others I to be friendly, smile and similar in our actions. 

Elder East mentioned that they took on teaching lady that the Sister Missionaries had started teaching.  She came along to Church on Sunday along with her husband and son. 

Whilst at Church the Ellis family called the Elders into the kitchen. There they had a birthday cake and treats for Elder East - it also happened to be the birthday of their twin children. 

Elder East said that they got to teach a lesson in the afternoon, and then for dinner got to have the chilli that Elder East had cooked earlier.  He says that it was OK, but it tasted like a “normal” chilli, and not like Dad’s chilli.

Elder East says that he got spoilt with presents for his birthday. He had previously received a package from us and from the Reeves before his birthday. He said that the mission couple happened to come by on the day as well, and he received a package from Grandma, as well as his mobile phone case that I’d ordered for him

Amongst the photos Elder East sent us, he included these photos, but I'm not sure of the stories behind them. Noting who is in each picture, I'm presuming that the photo with all three elders in it would've been taken on Tuesday 27th April, with the other being taken earlier in the week.

A couple of final dot points from the week:

• They visited a member's home on Monday night and she decided that she was doing a  personality test on the Elders. She reckoned that Elder East was "officious, logical and would make a good Stake President." He's not sure what he thinks of that assessment.
• Elder East has lost 3kgs in weight - down from 96kgs to 93kgs. They're trying hard to be healthy.

Video Chat - 24th February 2021 - Worn Out His First Lot of Shoes

As usual, we chatted with Elder East last P-Day about the past week. 

Last Thursday was Elder Taua's "Leaver's " dinner and session at the Temple. Elder east was expecting to spend time with the APs that evening but ended up in the Morialta area with his old companions, Elders Kennach and Nalesoni.

The major event was the Missionary Leadership Council that was held the previous Saturday. I mentioned in a separate blog that the Area Authority in attendance was Elder Paul Lekias, and his wife Rebecca whom we both know. Elder East said that the MLC was good, but that it was less of a council and more of being taught, possibly because it was the first one in over a year with an Area or General Authority in attendance. 

The main things covered in the MLC included Referrals, Finding and a doctrinal discussion about the Atonement. There were concerns raised that some of the referrals aren't being contacted. Elder East did note that some referrals are obviously fake. I shared that we got one when I was a missionary in Tamworth for "Slim Dusty". We knew it would be fake but went and checked out the address anyway - it was a car yard :) Elder East said that the Lekias' provided a referral that ended up being in their area. Elder East checked but said that the woman who answered said that she wasn't interested.

On Sunday Elder East spoke in Sacrament Meeting. He said that he used the examples of Nephi vs Laman & Lemuel after the death of Lehi. Nephi was able to keep himself on track whereas Laman & Lemuel didn't have Lehi continually calling them to repentance. He encouraged people not to rely on others to call us to repentance.

Again, there's also another blog entry about how May Sandeline-McCann, Elissa's trainer on her mission, just happened to be visiting Elder East's ward on Sunday when he was speaking and got to tell him "I was your Mum's trainer". That's the second of his parents' missionary companions that Elder East has now met.

On Monday they held District Council  - and Elder East said that he cooked chocolate chip cookies for everyone. 

Speaking of their investigators he spoke of the lady they're teaching. They had another lesson with her. Elder East says she has a medical condition that makes it hard for her to read but she read a whole chapter in the scriptures with them. The two other main investigators they have - Daniel and his cousin - hadn't replied back to their contacts over the last week, so they're concerned as to how they're doing. It had been a week and a half since they've seen them.

They had a referral from the Sister missionaries that they visited. The person was interested, but Elder East described them as crazy. Happy crazy, not depressed crazy though :) Elder East mentioned that the highlight of the week was some finding they did in Seaford, but he didn't explain why it was a highlight. They had three lessons scheduled for Wednesday evening - two with members and one with an investigator.

 A couple of other dot points from our discussion:

• They have started doing some exercise at night time - going for a walk down to the beach and back Obviously they're living within walking distance of the coast.
• They have gone over their kilometre allowance for their car, so they plan on riding bikes for the rest of the month. Elder East has only ridden a bike fro 2 days during the first 8 months of his mission.
• Edler East bought himself some new Church shoes and runners earlier on P-day. He said that he'd worn through his existing shoes.
• A number of missionaries in the mission are counting down their remaining time in the mission field as a lot of them now have elss than 100 days left.

Elder East's Mission Grandmother

Elissa got a message from Mary Sandelin-McCann. Mary was Elissa's trainer on her mission. The message advised: "I am listening to your son speak in Onkaparinga chapel. Lol" Elissa asked for a photo together if possible. We received the following.

Mary lives on Kangaroo Island but just happened to be in the ward whilst Sethw as speaking in Sacrament. Elissa commented to Mary "You do realise as my mission mum, he is your grandson."

Video Chat - 20th January 2021 - He Still Hasn't Unpacked Yet

 We got to have a longer chat with Elder East this week. He had just come from performing some service with other missionaries from the district. They helped an investigator to paint his living room and hallway. It was somebody that Elder East had already met when he was in his first area. He'd described him back on the 23rd Sep that "... he was like an atheist version of [Dad] - knowledgeable but stubborn."

Elder East shared with us about the previous P-Day when they had Elder Lwin's "just-in-case" farewell. They played volleyball down at the chapel, followed by a game of ten pin bowling. Elder East said he didn't play too bad. He says that the next transfers is on Monday 25th Jan. Given his history of being transferred at every transfer Elder East said he hasn't bothered unpacking since having to pack for Elder Lwin's "almost going home" the previous week.

The next transfer is expected to be small, but both Elder Lwin and Elder Rogers are due to go home so there will need to be some changes. He thinks that Elder Reeves will become a Zone Leader. Elder East has met the two new missionaries (Stiles & Cook) that came into the AAM mid-transfer and caused Elder East's transfer to Gulfview Heights with Elder Lwin. He met Elder Stiles who is also from Canberra but says that he doesn't recognise him at all from his pre-mission days. The other new Elder, Elder Cook plays Magic The Gathering. They were going to have a game together on P-Day, but their painting service project ended up taking longer than expected and they didn't have time to play.

On Tuesday they had a mini-exchange with the APs. Elder East spent his time with Elder Rogers. They spent some time on Elder East's contacting skills. The missionaries are now allowed to do street contacting and pretty much everything except tracting. They previously hadn't been allowed to do contacting in public due to coronavirus restrictions, so it's a skill Elder East hasn't been able to use yet. He said that they had a KFC dinner in a park and then went out just talking to people around them. Elder East said that Elder Rogers had implied that Elder East should prepare himself to serve in leadership capacities. 

 

Elder East was asked to give a 10-minute talk at Church the previous Sunday. He was only asked on the Saturday morning to do so. He talked about how the Book of Mormon can bring us closer to Christ, and how it helps to correct false traditions.

Elder East spoke about some of the members they'd been with over the last two weeks:

• There was a Brother Steven Pearce who was originally from WA who recognised Elder East's name and worked out that he was my son. I didn't recognise the name, but Elissa did. She said to ask him if he remembered the Yates family.
• They've only just had their first missionary correlation meeting with the Ward Mission Leader. Apparently, he's not too keen on meetings.
• They had a meal with the Pressler family who also gave them some bags of American treats. On finding out that Elder East likes L&P they also got him a can of L&P as well. 
• They had a meal with the Relief Society President. She warned them that her husband has dementia and can be a bit difficult and argumentative. Apparently the husband told Elder Lwin that he needed to teach Elder East how to tie a windsor knot for his tie. Elder East then said that the husband needed to get his wife to teach him how to come along to church. The family gave them a lot of left-over food which helped them with a couple of meals.
• They had another family in the ward give them two bags of "good quality" groceries, which they were obviously happy to receive.

Some other dot point notes from our discussion:

• Elder East has had problems with an ingrown toenail in the past, and he's starting to have problems with it again. He says he also needs new shows - both church shoes and runners. Unsure if his shoes are causing his ingrown toenail.
• The new Mission President for the AAM who will take over from President Marquis in July has been announced., His name is Adolf J. Johansson and he's from Tonga, but has spent a lot of time in Fiji as an Area Authority. We think he may actually have visited and spoken at a Stake Conference in Canberra several years ago.
• A talk Elder East enjoyed from his study recently was President Henry B Eyring's talk "Walk With Me". 
• They're currently only teaching two investigators. Elder Lwin has been teaching one of them for a long time as Elder Lwin first met him when this was his first area in the mission.
• Elder East said that it's hard for Elder Lwin to stay focused at the moment with the uncertainty around his departure.
• Elder Lwin is doing the cooking most nights, but it's mainly because he tends to get hungrier earlier than Elder East does.

Video Chat - 28th October 2020 - Working With the Prospect Members

It was only a short video call from Elder East on P-Day last week.

The District had stopped off at the library on the way to the chapel on P-day so that Elder East could use a computer to send emails. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t get long at the library so he's behind with his email responses.

Transfers is next Tuesday, and they’ll find out on Saturday evening if it affects their companionship.  They know that they’re losing 5 missionaries who are going home, and apparently, only one new missionary is coming in in this transfer.

Elder East gave a five-minute talk in Church last Sunday on the Gathering of Israel. He studied up beforehand and had dot points, but not a full written talk, so we can’t get a copy :( He says that sacrament attendance is starting to improve, with about 70 at Church on Sunday as people resume coming back after the pandemic restrictions. The Elders had a chance to meet with the Bishop who encouraged them to work with the members. Elder East said that they are getting a lot more meals and appointments with the Ward members  - he puts it down to his great talk. :)

They did get to teach the previous Bishop’s son during the last week. Elder East said it went OK but he was struggling to adjust to teaching at an eight-year-old’s level. (In his words “ I’d forgotten how young 8 years old is.”) He said that they did use an object lesson using red food colouring when talking about sin and baptism. I'm presuming it's the object lesson using bleach to then make the food colouring disappear.

They also had a positive experience after their interviews with President last Thursday. They went and met with their investigator Fonzie. Elder East said that they had quite a strong spiritual experience whilst meeting with Fonzie and that he committed to being baptized, so they will work with him to prepare for baptism.

He mentioned that they also went and visited with the Indian man who previously wanted to argue, but with this visit, he actually accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon to read, so maybe his heart is softening a little bit as well.

It was good to hear from Elder East, but it was definitely a much quicker chat than normal. Hopefully, we'll be able to have longer video chats again sooner rather than later.