Chat - 17th March 2021 - Area Photo Collages

Elder East advised that they were having a district P Day activity this week so we wouldn't get a call, but he did share a bunch of photos and chat with us instead. He said that "We send a collage most nights to our zone chat with our daily highlights", so these were his most recent images.

Other dot points from our text chat:

• He is in need of a case for his phone for both protection and to try and keep it clean. Following a few suggestions he decided he liked this one, so I've ordered one for him.

• He wasn't aware of the photos of himself on the Church's news article about the service they provided. His comment was that "I look fat ... Gotta work out more"
• He was needing to go and pay the speeding fine that he received a little while ago. We said that we would put some money into his account towards it, which he was very thankful for. I said not to expect it in the future but that "It's good to be able to have somebody who can pay the price for our sins 🙂 [It's an] object lesson you can use 🙂". He understood the analogy I was making to how the Saviour's atonement works.
• Elder East confirmed that Sister Malu - a sister missionary who just arrived into the mission from Canberra - was sent to Darwin for her first area. 
• They have Stake Missionary Correlation scheduled for Thursday (18th Mar), which will be the first one that Elder East has been to. He thinks that there might be a Zone Conference scheduled for this week as well.
• Elder East has heard once from Elder Taua since he went home, and Elder Taua also participates in a  messenger chat that the missionaries have.
• When we asked as to how his investigators were going he expressed some frustration/sadness saying "We can get them like 50% of the way [towards baptism] then something comes up...". I empathised, advising " Getting them through all of the discussions and to the baptism itself is always a major accomplishment.  Satan is working on them just as hard as you are, and he gets more help."
• I mentioned that I will be flying to see his grandparents in WA in May and have a 4½ hour stopover in Adelaide. I advised that if he's still in Adelaide after the next transfer, I'll discuss with the mission office as to whether I can take him and his companion out to lunch.
• He says that he and his new companion are getting along really well. I asked him that, noting his hyphenated English/Polynesian name, is Elder Beaumont-Tafua more Polynesian or more palagi or half-and-half? Elder East said that "He's white as heck" but that he tries to be more Samoan because his original mission calling was to Samoa. :)

Elder East got in trouble from his Mum during the evening. She saw the following photo on the "Missionary Mommas" Facebook group that she's a member of. 

Elder East had asked his Mum to make an apron for him, but it appears he then left it behind in one of his old flats and it is now being used by other Elders.

Email Home - 05th August 2020 - Trainer and First Area

Here's the email we received from Elder East on Wednesday 5th August 2020:
Clarifications or notes that have been inserted by Adam are in [square brackets].

This week I have been transferred to the [Adelaide] City Branch area with Elder De Guzman as my trainer.

Apparently Elders assigned to the City area often stay there a while and may [frequently] spend some time up in Darwin. The City Branch is also a Chinese speaking area however [attendance is low] because of the Covid restrictions. Many members are stuck back in their home countries like China or Hong Kong. The City Branch takes up an entire floor in an office building in the city. The entire seventh floor to be precise. Although the missionaries normally assigned to the City Branch are Chinese speaking I don't have to learn it thankfully, though if I spend long here I may end up learning some anyway.

On the bus ride from our flat to [the chapel] (where we do all our work), we pass by four churches, the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, the SA Museum, the SA Art Gallery, the SA State Library, and [the Freemason's] Grand Lodge. And just across the street from the [chapel] is the Adelaide War Memorial (or at least one part of it). You can see it from the [chapel] window which is awesome.

One of the missionaries in quarantine with me was assigned to the City Branch as well but with a different companion so I'll still see him every day.

We had an in-person Zone Conference this Monday which had all the missionaries come together for. It was great to hear from Pres Marquis and to hear and see all of the presentations made for us. We did a musical item that I'm sure Pres will release in a while. I was able to see all of the quarantine missionaries there as well which was great to catch up with them.

In the field, I've gotten a couple of clarifications of rules from my companion. I'm not supposed to use Messenger at all unless it's on P-day with family or it's with investigators. So it's best if you email me during the week instead. Another clarification I've had is that I'm only supposed to have plain socks so all of my socks are unfit to wear :(

[In response to finding out that the heater under Jewel's desk had caught fire] That's what Jewel gets for putting the heater under her desk, that place was a safety hazard since day one.

[In response to both Dad and Jewel being sick] Sending my love home to Dad and Jewel hoping that they get better from their sicknesses.

[In response to news about increasing Covid restrictions in Victoria] I heard Melbourne had introduced curfew but I didn't know it was that bad. Rumor has it (rumor because we don't have news) that SA is bringing back a lot of restrictions because we're getting a handful of cases, only 15 or so but it's enough.

[About keeping in touch with his friend, Alex, back in Canberra] I'll be sending Alex an email today, don't worry.

[About the fact that Elissa and Elder Reeves' Mum have struck up a friendship] It's great that you and Sister Reeves have been talking a lot. It was funny in quarantine because Elder Reeves and I would talk a lot then we'd both talk back home to Kendall and then we'd talk back home to our respective parents who would talk to each other. We were/are getting pretty involved with each other's family.

I'll talk more about my companion in a sec. But Elder Reeves trio seems a lot more chill and less strict than my companionship for sure. The hike though was pretty amazing, we saw a bunch of koalas closer than I've ever seen and so close to humans as well. Photos in drive.

I talked to a guy [at Church] who said he was told to look out for me and he blessed the sacrament while I passed. Thanks for sending the word out.

My companion is alright, he is a zone leader as well as being a trainer so he's got a lot on his plate. And while he's doing both as best as he can I don't think he wants to be either. Especially as he's been a zone leader for 4 transfers. But he's an excellent missionary and we've had some great moments during study together and he's a great cook.

I had an interview with my Pres Marquis last Friday right before the transfer on Saturday, he is an awesome guy and so far I keep loving everything he does for us more and more.

Also thanks for the insights from your seminary class, I won't respond to them but I love reading them.

A response to last week's email: (half-written quite a while later).

South Australia has a mandatory 12th day Covid test, so all 5 of us got tested on the second Tuesday of quarantine. It was a 40-minute drive to the testing centre and an hour and a half wait. Thankfully the test was short but by the time we got back to our flat, we'd spent half of the day out already. None of us have Covid but three of us got tested in the same room so we had fun laughing at each other's pain, I actually took the test the best and barely had a reaction. As being written we don't know exactly when quarantine ends but it's either Friday or Saturday. (The quarantine ended on Friday but we got our new companionships and areas on Saturday)

I did get my shoes - thank you - and thank you especially for the hot chocolate, I've waited 'til out of quarantine to enjoy them the most.

We got Elder Reeves package last Thursday, and it's amazing. The cookies look and taste amazing! (Photos in drive)

Pancakes did turn out pretty good in the end. We had them a couple times and they were always good. The quality of meals in quarantine slowly decayed until the end when we got KFC.
Bread Nachos is bread with oil, taco mix seasoning, and cheese on top of bread put in the oven for 5 minutes, and it's really good. Elder Reeves and I created that last Monday in quarantine when we mistakenly thought we were getting our groceries that day.

The mission/zone conference was just an announcement that we're limited to 10 hours of service each week and only 2 hours of service for members.

Love from, Elder East.

The First Email Home - 22nd July 2020

Hello East Family,

My flight was really good, nice and short only about 2 hours and I just looked out the window for most of it. I did have an exit row seat so I may have fallen asleep for a small bit.

When I arrived I had to get screened by the police which was a bit intimidating but they were all chill so it was all good in the end.

Quarantine isn't too bad.  We're all sharing one room and the other rooms are turned into studying and class rooms. We're all getting along really well, I'll talk about the Elders later. The flat is also really good. We didn't get central heating fixed until Tuesday but we've had plenty of space heaters to keep us warm. We probably won't have flats this nice in the field.

Food is pretty good. So far we've all taken turns cooking and everything's been edible so far. We had a lot of essentials stocked for us when we got there and we got a delivery Sunday with a lot more items (including hot chocolate which I was going through withdrawals for). We actually do have a slow cooker so I'm seeing if our ingredients list gets approved so I can make a chicken stroganoff.

There are five Elders in total. My companion is Elder Nalosoni, he's the big fellow in the pictures. He's pretty quiet in general but we've had some great moments during companionship study. He was originally called to the Philippines.

I can say this about all the Elders, we're all pretty funny guys with a great sense of humor. The other elders are in a tripanionship, there is Elder Reeves who is Kendall's brother. He's got a lot of missionary friends and a lot of experience. He was originally called to the Sendai (Tokyo North) Mission in Japan. Elder Roberts is the longest-serving of the Elders as he was called to Samoa and served there for two months before coming back home. He is also the district leader. Elder Ma'a is the final Elder, he was called to the Ivory Coast.

I am the youngest by age and calling date. I am the only Elder actually called to Adelaide and I am also the only Elder not endowed. Apparently, I'm one of the first missionaries in a while who has actually been called to Adelaide.

The MTC experience here has been amazing and so much better than the online MTC. We've got stuff to do from 8am to 9pm and it's all organised with breaks so that it all works really well.
It definitely makes up for the lost time in the NZ MTC.

Love, Elder East