Video Call - 30th May 2022 - Time to Start Packing & The Hero's Journey

With only two weeks to go until Elder East comes home, the P Day call this week was a very jovial one, with lots of family banter and joking. It was a long and happy chat.

On Tuesday of the previous week was the mid-cycle transfer and Elder Nelson joined Elders East and Ma'a in a three-way companionship to learn the ropes as an AP in the AAM. Unfortunately, Elder Nelson came down sick during the week. Elder Ma'a ended up in a  trade-off with another missionary for most of the week whilst Elder East stayed with Elder Nelson. Elder East describes Elder Nelson as cool, and a bit of a crackup. That's good to hear as Elder East had always sounded a bit cautious about what the American missionaries would be like when they eventually came into the AAM.

On Wednesday President Johansson flew up to Sydney for Mission President's Training with Elder Brent H Nielson from the Presidency of the Seventy. All of the Australian missionaries joined in a broadcast with Elder Nielson on the Thursday morning. The meeting was an 8am start for the Adelaide missionaries. Elder East said that he pitied the Perth missionaries who would have had the meeting start at 6am their time. 

Elders East & Ma'a flew up to Alice Springs on Friday for a baptismal service on Saturday (28th May) before flying back on Sunday morning. The service contained both the baptism of a new member as well as a rebaptism of a previous member of the Church. 

Elder East has an affinity for his time in Darwin and the Northern Territory - he considers it a part of his "Hero's Journey". He sees himself as being immature prior to his time in Darwin, having his awakening in Darwin, and then continuing on as a changed/transformed missionary. 

Source: Hero’s Journey Editable Diagram for PowerPoint by SlideModel.com

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• Two new Zones were created during the week. One currently doesn't have any Zone leaders, so the APs are assisting there. Elder East has started his sorting and packing for his return home.
• There was a late change as a part of transfers about using one of the flats which caused a bunch of unintended consequences - eg a district with just Sisters - that caused some logistical issues that needed to be fixed up during the week.
• We joked that we needed to make him up a list of important or interesting things to check out that occurred during his mission, much like people did for Captain America in the Avengers movies.

• Jewel isn't looking forward to Elder East coming home ... it means she has to keep their bathroom clean. :)
• Elder East is interested in getting us to order a computer for him for his return back home.
• Elder East reckons that he's reached the point of being ready to come home. He loves the missionary work itself but not all of the issues and headaches associated with helping to look after the missionaries that takes him away from doing missionary work.

Video Call - 23rd May 2022 - Running on Two Hours Sleep & A New Companion

Today was the big day of the New Zealand assigned missionaries flying out of the AAM. When we spoke to Elder East he told us that he was operating on only 2 hours of sleep overnight due to the early check-in times (3:30am) for the departing missionaries. 

Just to add additional drama to the early start, they discovered that three of the missionaries didn't have the right Covid clearance certificates to be able to travel. They did have Covid clearance certificates, but not international Covid clearance certificates. The mission didn't even know that was a thing, and it was just fortunate that the other 12 departing missionaries did have the right type of certificates. Those three missionaries that were unable to depart were rescheduled to fly out on Wednesday (25th May). He said that whilst they were trying to sort out the Covid certificate issue the airport went from empty to full with long lines everywhere.

Just to add further complexity, they also received a call letting them know that some of the missionaries flying into the AAM from the New Zealand missions had missed their flight.

Because of everything that has been going on, lots of Elders have been using the APs flat as a temporary sleeping place. Elder East was happy that now that the other missionaries had flown out, the APs flat could get back a semblance of order again rather than being full of missionaries and luggage in transit.

Mid-transfers were happening the following day (Tues 24th May). President Johansson had made some last-minute changes to those originally planned. Elders East & Ma'a would be going into a three-way companionship to help train a new AP to replace Elder East when he leaves. Their new companion is Elder Nelson - one of the American missionaries who recently arrived into the mission. Elder Nelson is from South Jordan in Utah and has already served about 18 months of his mission in the USA whilst the borders were shut. He will be Elder East's 21st (and presumably final) companion on his mission.

Other quick notes from our chat:

• The Ward had a cottage evening activity during the week. The Elders taught a lesson about the Plan of Salvation. Elder East said that it was a good night.
• They were expecting eight people for Church on Sunday, but none of them ended up coming for various reasons, which they were disappointed about.
• Elder East successfully voted in the Federal Election on Saturday - he'd transferred his enrolment to SA. He ended up having to help other missionaries who still had their enrolments back at home to find appropriate polling centres to vote at
• Elder East will be heading up to Alice Springs next weekend where a number of baptisms will be occurring. 

Video Chat - 1st May 2022 - A Quiet Week In Isolation

It was a quiet week for the Elders as expected as they were quarantined due to Elder East's covid. Only one other Elder, from Alice Springs, tested positive for Covid as well. Fortunately, the rules for close contacts changed during the week, so the rest of the NT missionaries were able to leave isolation on Wednesday. 

Both Elders East & Ma'a had their birthdays during their isolation period, so once the other Elders were no longer required to isolate on Thursday they got the APs a combined birthday cake.

The Elders weren't able to do much during isolation, however, they were able to teach a lesson via Zoom to one of their investigators down in Adelaide. They spent the rest of their time trying to catch up by phone with people in Adelaide and trying to make sure other missionaries were OK.

Elder East made a successful recovery from Covid during his isolation period and was given the ok for release from isolation at Midnight on Friday night. They wasted no time leaving isolation, getting drive-through at McDonalds, and then driving to the airport to fly back to Adelaide at 2:30am on Saturday morning.

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• On the 23rd May, all of the missionaries with original assignments to New Zealand missions will be leaving the AAM for their original assignments in New Zealand.
• Consequent to the above, the APs will have a second set of missionaries temporarily assigned to Firle Ward until they depart for New Zealand. This companionship will share the flat with the APs.
• A new missionary, Elder Chick, will be arriving in the mission this coming week. Elder East's mum and Elder Chick's Dad served in the same mission and were good friends. We sent through some photos of them together on their missions.

Video Chat - 25th April 2022 - Elder East Gets Covid and Gets Choc-Mint Ice Cream

It was a sick Elder East that spoke to us on the ANZAC Day public holiday P-Day. He had been confirmed as having Covid and was in isolation in Darwin. He had a sore throat and was congested but hadn't been hit too harshly by it.

Being a public holiday we had both Jayde and Jewel join us in the chat as well so that everybody could chat with him. 

He gave us a rundown of events over the preceding week.

On the previous Monday (18th April) they were still in their split companionships awaiting for the trainers of the new missionaries to come out of isolation (one had Covid and the other was a household contact). On the Monday night Elder East and Jian went to a Family Home Evening being held by the City Branch for the YSA and students in the branch. It was a good opportunity for Elder Jian to start getting to know those in the Branch and for Elder East to catch up with people from when he served there.

On the Tuesday the second trainer also came down with Covid, meaning that the greenies would need to remain with the APs for the rest of the week. He said that this meant that they were doing a lot more in the way of study and administration with the new Elders, as well as follow-up calls and tracting.

On the Wednesday they had several meetings - a District Council for Firle as well as a Technology Council. Elder East says that they were able to handover the running of the Facebook group for the missionary's families to the Social Media missionaries. After their meetings, they went and provided some service to a member who is getting ready to move to Africa, as well as getting haircuts.

On the Thursday, Elders East & Ma'a flew up with President Johansson to Darwin, leaving their greenies with other missionaries back in Adelaide. There was a get-together for the NT-based missionaries after which the APs traded off with the Alice Springs missionaries and went tracting in Darwin. 

On Friday they had the Zone Conference for the NT-based missionaries. The APs were meant to provide some training at the conference, however, President Johansson went longer than planned with his training, so they ended up not doing their session. On the Friday evening there was a sports night at the chapel being run by the local Church members that the missionaries joined in with.

On the Friday evening Elder East noticed that he was getting a sniffly nose, but he put it down to having been inside in air conditioning the whole day.

On the Saturday, President Johansson arranged for a number of people to go down together to visit with members in Katherine. There is a branch of the church at Katherine, but the members there are mostly less active. President Johansson hired a Kia Carnival and drove down with the APs, the Zone Leaders, and a senior missionary couple based in Darwin. 

It was a 6-hour round trip so besides looking at giant termite mounds by the roadside they broke the driving up with some stops. They stopped at the Adelaide River War Cemetary which contains graves of those killed by Japanese bombings in World War II. Whilst in Katherine itself they also had a look at the Katherine Hot Springs - one of the tourist spots in the area. 

Whilst visiting with the members Elder East highlighted their experience with one of them. The person was desirous of having the sacrament but hadn't had the opportunity to do so for a number of years. President Johansson gave the OK for the missionaries to conduct a short sacrament service with them even though it was a Saturday. 

They drove back to Darwin in the afternoon/evening, with President Johansson shouting the APs to dinner at a seafood buffet restaurant that night. By this time Elder East was starting to feel sick. President Johansson had had a cold earlier in the week and Elder East presumed that he'd caught President's cold which was making him feel sick. 

By Sunday morning Elder Easts' throat was really sore and he undertook a RAT test.

The positive result meant that all of the NT missionaries were now required to isolate themselves as contacts. The APs were in the Palmerston flat with Elder Evans and his companion.  

We managed to have quite a long chat with Elder East. There was a lot of banter and discussion with his sisters. Jayde ubered him some ice cream for his sore throat whilst we were talking. She said she made sure it was a flavour that he liked which the other missionaries probably wouldn't like - choc-mint.

The coming week was going to be difficult in isolation. The Elders would try and do as much as they could remotely when feeling better, but it was all about recuperating and recovering.

Video Chat - 11th April 2022 - Overnight Trip Up to Broken Hill With President Johansson

We got a run down from Elder East on some happenings from the previous week.

On the previous Tuesday (5th Apr) they had a Missionary Leadership Council on the importance of the Book of Mormon. Elders East & Ma’a also had the opportunity to have dinner with the Adelaide Temple President and his family.

Wednesday was a day of meetings - Technology Council followed by District Council. They then had trade-offs with the Zone Leaders. They went out tracting, as well as providing some service in Fulham Gardens.

They completed their trade-offs on Friday morning after which they headed off with President Johansson to go and get their flu shots at 10am. Whilst waiting, President told them that he had to drive up to Broken Hill in a couple of hours and wanted the APs to accompany him on the drive. So that was their Thursday afternoon, accompanying President Johansson on a drive up to Broken Hill to do some paperwork that had to be done in person. The mission had re-opened the Broken Hill area for missionaries only three weeks earlier, so they ended up staying with the Elders overnight before driving back on Friday morning. Once back in Adelaide they were able to catch up and have a meal with a family who were visiting from Alice Springs. Elder Ma’a knew them well from his time serving in Alice Springs.

They were able to teach a number of lessons on Saturday including a video lesson with a lady that Elder East had previously taught when in Onkaparinga Ward. Saturday evening was taken up with making calls advising missionaries who would be affected by the following mid-cycle transfer.

On Wednesday Elder East had received an email about starting his preparation course for returning home. He admitted that this made him a little but trunkee. He is feeling a bit burnt-out. It is likely that he will remain AP until the end of his mission. If that is the case, he’s likely to be in a three-way companionship during the last 3 weeks of his mission as he helps train up his replacement.

Other notes from our chat:

• The mission is dealing with several missionaries who have Covid or are in isolation including the Port Pirie Elders. Probably the most unfortunate is the Elder who was due to leave for his original assignment in Italy. He undertook his mandatory PCR test two days before leaving even though he had no symptoms … and subsequently returned a positive result.
• They have an Elder Chick coming into the mission. He is the son of a missionary who was in the same MTC and mission as Elder East’s mum. We’ve actually caught up with them several times in the intervening years and sent a few photos of the younger Elder Chick through to Elder East.
• Elder East says that his new suit is doing well. It’s a bit darker than he expected it to be. It’s also “stretchy”, which he likes.
• We also spoke a bit about Easter. Elder East wasn’t too keen on having too much chocolate, so we arranged for a Coles delivery to the office. It included lots of small Easter chocolates that he could share with other people as well as a selection of fruit.
• He called Grandma & Grandad Yates later in the day which they were absolutely thrilled with.

Video Chat - 28th February 2022 - Visiting Robinvale Branch

It was only a brief chat with Elder East on P Day (28th Feb).  The previous Monday they had flown back from the Northern Territory.  The following week was spent sorting out transfers and the upcoming Mission Conference. 

Elder East advised that they are changing the way they do transfers. They will no longer be announcing all of the changes beforehand, simply advising missionaries whether to get ready to be transferred or not. We asked Elder East if he was being affected by transfers but he wouldn't let us know.

He let us know that during the week he refilmed a video with Elder McCarthy about the Spirit World. Apparently there were issues with the quality of the first take. The video now has to be edited and gotten ready to put up on social media.

On Saturday morning they provided some service to a member in Firle Ward who is getting ready to move by shifting a load of bricks in their yard.

Later on Saturday they drove up to Mildura. They would be spending the rest of the weekend there to help assist with a devotional being put on by President Johansson on the Sunday evening. 

On Sunday they went to Church in Robinvale - a town about 90km east of  Mildura. Elder East said that it's meant to be an English-speaking branch, but most of the meeting was in Tongan. The one-hour Sacrament meeting also went for nearly two hours.

They had dinner with the Mildura Bishop before the devotional on Sunday evening and drove back to Adelaide on the P Day we chatted. Elder East ends up doing a lot of traveling on P Days. 

Some other quick dot points from our conversation:

• Five new missionaries are coming into the AAm during the next mid-transfer cycle. Four of them are reassignments of missionaries meant to be heading to New Zealand. There's a family friend in Sydney who's meant to be heading to New Zealand in April, however, she's currently scheduled to go to the AAM if unable to go to New Zealand. She probably doesn't know that yet though.
• There are three Missionary Leadership Councils coming up followed by a Mission Tour by Elder Nattress from the Area Presidency the following week. Consequently, P Day on the 7th March has been rescheduled to Thurs 10th March. 
• Elder East had forgotten to tell uis that he'd been able to attend the Adelaide Temple the previous week. The Mission Leadership Council had been invited to go along with the Johanssons to the temple.
• Elder East is currently thinking that he'll focus on doing a general science degree at ANU when he returns from his mission.

Video Chat - 21st February 2022 - The NT With President Johansson & Elder Nattress

 Much of our chat this week was about the APs trip up to the Northern Territory the previous week.

The APs flew up to Alice Springs on Wednesday and had trade-offs with the missionaries in the afternoon. President Johansson and Elder Nattress (First Counselor in the Area Presidency) flew up to Alice Springs on Thursday and took some personal time to head out to Uluru and Segway around the rock before returning to Alice Springs. This gave them a long amount of time to do some one-on-one counseling/training together as well as getting to see a famous tourist sight. 

On Friday they had a meeting with the Alice Springs missionaries as well as a Fireside in the evening for members and investigators. They had four investigators come along to the Fireside in the evening. 

On Saturday they flew up to Darwin. Elder East sent us the following message:

But truthfully I had this really great experience on Saturday.

We had just flown into Darwin and we had gotten the Elders to the chapel to meet Elder Nattress. We went to get lunch for everyone to bring back and then had a meeting with him.

During the meeting I was about to fall asleep. I just felt so dead and I remember thinking that straight after this meeting when I go with the Elders I'm gonna go nap.

But I was also like I gotta help these Elders and be an example and so I said a prayer and was like "hey if you need me to do something up here can you please give me the strength to do it, but if not can I please get some rest."

At the end of the meeting President turns to us APs and says he's gonna need us for a bunch of things and almost Immediately I felt wide awake and full of energy and felt like that the rest of the day.

So it was pretty simple but for me, it was a really clear cause and effect of God helping me in that moment that I loved.

After helping out President, they went out tracting in the heavy rain with the Darwin missionaries and got a return appointment. On the Saturday evening, there was meant to be a Leadership Dinner with President Johansson and Elder Nattress, and the local priesthood leaders. Unfortunately, of the local leaders, three had covid, two were away and of the others, only one was able to make it. 

On Sunday there was a combined Church meeting for both the Darwin and Palmerston Branches. The APs were acting as greeters. They were getting worried when with several minutes before Church was due to start both President Johnasson and Elder Nattress hadn't arrived yet, and as noted most of the other local leaders were away, in isolation or otherwise indisposed. Fortunately, they arrived right at the 9am start time. 

There was a lunch put on after Church finished and Elder East was able to catch up with a number of members from Palmerston Branch who he knew. The Stubbs, who have recently moved from Canberra to Darwin also happened to recognise him. They sent the following photo to the Canberra Stake Facebook group. 

On Sunday afternoon they went out to visit some of the former investigators from when Elder East was in the area. The only person who they managed to catch up with though was Sister King - again, another former Canberra member who had recently moved up to Darwin. The Kings hadn't been to Church in a  while so Elder East was happy to get a return appointment with them for the Palmerston missionaries.

They then tracted a complex of six houses. From those six houses, there was no answer from two, they taught a lesson at one and got three return appointments from the others. They were happy to be successful with the tracting as the NT missionaries had been saying that they don't see any success tracting, however, Elders East & Evans taught or got return appointments every time they went out tracting in the NT during the week.

They ended up flying back down to Adelaide on the P Day Monday, so our video chat was in the evening. 

Some other quick notes from our chat:

• Elder East managed to get some sand for his "collection" from one of the Darwin beaches.
• He bought himself a souvenir tie in Darwin.
• We sent him some PDFed university course guides to read on the plane on the flight back to help him make a decision about whether he needs to apply for university before he finishes his mission in June. We confirmed that his return date was the 15th June - about 5 days earlier than we'd previously thought.
• Elder East said that It has been really good being with Elder Nattress - he's a very nice, and spiritual, man. The whole trip has been really tiring though - even President Johansson is super tired.
• He commented about how being an Assistant to the President has been hard, but he's never felt unfulfilled. He feels that he's doing really well, both spiritually and emotionally.
• Here's a photo of a baby thorny devil that they found during their time in Alice Springs.

Video Chat - 14th February 2022 - The Mission is Growing

 As usual, another busy week for the APs in the AAM, or in the words of Elder East "really hectic". Tuesday was transfers. Elder East commented that they did transfers differently this month with the Sister missionaries coming in first to have their transfers, and the Elders coming later to do theirs. He reckons that the Sisters took a long time socialising at transfers with the other Sisters, whilst the Elders were more in and out. 

On Wednesday eight new missionaries arrived. Of the eight new missionaries that arrived, three will be staying in the AAM, whilst the other five are on temporary assignment whilst waiting to get to Perth (x2), Japan, New Zealand and Fiji.  Elder East commented that the new missionaries all look so young, and in the case of the 4' 9' tall sister, very short. 

On Thursday, Elder East said that he cost the mission $800. One of the new missionaries was meant to be flying out to his new area in the Northern Territory on Thursday morning. Elder East forgot about the time difference between NT and SA, and got the missionary to the airport at the right time ... if he was in the NT. But funnily enough, the plane was operating on SA time when departing from the Adelaide airport and had left within the previous hour. They had to rebook the Elder's flight for the following day ... and they made sure to be there on time.

Elder East said that there was a lot of travel coming up. Elder Brett Nattress (First Counselor in the Area Presidency was doing several tours of the mission, He would be coming to visit the NT with President Johansson next week, and then Adeliade in early March. President Johansson decided that he needed to take the APs with him during the trip to assist with a lot of the organisation of what was going on. Consequently, they'll be flying up to Alice Springs on Wed (16th Feb) and then up to Darwin on Sat (19th Feb) before flying back to Adelaide next Monday (21st Feb.) This means that on Sunday at Church, Elder East will possibly get to catch up with some of the people he knew whilst serving in Darwin. 

In the week following that they would be having Zone Conferences, and the following week Elder Nattress will be back for the Adelaide part of the mission tour. 

Some other dot points from our discussion:

• There are another 9 new missionaries coming at mid-transfers in 3 weeks' time. The mission is definitely growing. They'll also be getting several Mandarin-speaking missionaries in April.
• With the relaxation of Covid restrictions, they're now allowed to try following up in person with people again rather than vai electronically.
• He was asked how his clothes were holding out or if he needed new ones before his mission would finish. He said that he needs new suit pants - they've gotten too small - but was going out to buy some today.
• They've been using a lot of the food from the freezer in their flat which has been there since before they arrived back in November.
• The last three nights he's dreamt that he was back home ... but that he was still a missionary.
• He is beginning to think he may head straight to University when he gets home. We chatted about how he needs to focus on the missionary work, but also may need to prayerfully make some decisions soon with respect to his University application. We sent through some university admission information for him to look at on future P Days. He said that he'll probably end up doing some reading about uni admission during his upcoming flights.
• Elder East has grown to like the steak houses that have been used for some of the "Arrivers" dinners. He wants to know if there are any steak houses in Canberra.
• Elissa had joked about what meal he wanted most when he gets back. He's decided he wants a whole week of meals: In no particular order: "Chicken Stroganoff, Chicken and cheese enchiladas, Bang bang chicken noodles, Dad's chilli, Nachos, Maybe go out to a nice Indian place."

Video Chat - 31st January 2022 - The Jetsetting APs Hit Alice Springs

It was a busy week of travel for the APs over this last week. We'd mentioned how they had driven up to Broken Hill last Monday, spent some time checking out the area and talking to the Branch President before driving back down on Tuesday. There aren't a lot of active members of the Church in Broken Hill, but a total of around 100 including all of the less active members.

On Wednesday they drove down to Victor Harbour which is about an hour south of Adelaide. They had trade-offs on the Wednesday and Thursday with the missionaries in the area. The companionship is a three-way companionship that included one of his old companions, Elder Davey. It was a hot Australia Day whilst they were there Elder East says that they were accosted in the street by an ex-member who wanted to Bible bash with them. Elder East says that they showed a lot of patience and Christ-like love in dealing with the person. :)  

Elder East commented that the Victor Harbour Elder's taught him how to do Facebook video editing that night. Elder East thought it was potentially a handy skill to have

On Friday (28th Jan) they had a 6am flight up to Alice Springs, spending the weekend in the Alice before flying back 11am on the P Day we chatted (31st Jan). There'd been a bit of a commotion for the Alice Springs missionaries before the APs arrived. When going to bed on Thursday night they'd forgotten to lock the door to their house. Even though they live in a gated community, a group of young Aboriginal kids had come into their house, stolen their deodorants (for huffing) and the keys to the missionaries' car. The missionaries woke up to the kids trying to get the car started. The missionaries were able to close the front gate and stop the kids from stealing their car, but the kids still managed to hit several things with the car before fleeing. This was apparently the third time the Alice Springs missionaries have had their car broken into.

Once Elders East and Evans arrived they spent the time trading off with the other Elders. Elder East said that the Alice Springs missionaries do a lot of sports activities and the APs helped refine them from just sports into more effective finding tools. Despite it being quite wet whilst they were Elder East said that it was a really nice time. 

We discussed how the heavy rains and flooding in the NT and SA over the last couple of weeks were affecting the transport network. Elder East said the Alice Springs shops were pretty empty and sent us the following photos. He said that they ended up at a Red Rooster for dinner one evening and they only had half of their menu available. 

Some additional notes from our chat:

• Elder East got himself some (wet) sand from Alice Springs to add to his collection.
• Elder Reeves is about to go home next week. 
• They've hardly seen President Johansson over the last week. That's unusual as they usually spend most of their time working together. 
• Elder East is thinking about whether he might extend his mission by a transfer. 

Video Chat - 24th January 2022 - Traveling Up To Broken Hill

Elder East called us later on P-Day (Mon 24th Jan) because he and Elder Evans had just driven up to Broken Hill with President Johanssen. They were investigating the area to see if it could support missionaries in the future. It was a 6-hour drive from Adelaide.

As usual, a quick recap of the past week. Tuesday of last week was spent in an all-day planning meeting with President Johanssen.

On Wednesday there were five new missionaries arriving - three Elders and two Sisters. Two of them had been serving in the Sydney Mission whilst waiting to get to Adelaide. The day was taken up with getting the new arrivals from the airport followed by the introduction of their trainers and the usual orientation activities. They had the Mount Barker and Alice Springs missionaries staying with them on Wednesday night.

On Thursday they had a meeting with President Johanssen and the Marion Stake leaders. They had the Mount Barker and Mount Gambier missionaries staying with them on Thursday.

On Friday was the Zone Conference for Moroni Zone, as well as interviews for the missionaries with President Johanssen, so again it was a busy day providing some training at the conference and assisting in managing the interviews. They had the Mount Gambier missionaries staying with them on the Friday night. 

Elder East joked that Saturday was their day of "rest". They ended up having to go and buy bulk lots of RATs for the mission

On Sunday they went to Church in Firle and now that they're looking after part of the ward, had Ward Mission Correlation with the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader. The latter part of the day was spent with President Johanssen in meetings about the mission's Facebook page.

In other quick notes from our chat:

• Lots of traveling coming up. After they get back from Broken Hill they'll be going to trade-off with the Victor Harbour missionaries, and then flying up to Alice Springs next weekend. Just after the next transfers they're due to drive out to Port lincoln and visit the members out there.
• Elder East has started a little hobby with his travels. He is getting a  small vial of sand from each of the locations he's visiting. He currently has some from Mildura and Broken Hill. We asked what Elder Evans thought of this idea ... he relayed the question to Elder Evans who replied "... interesting."
• The mission is slowly growing. They're now up to 50 missionaries in the AAM, and should be close to 70 by mid-year.