Video Chat - 6th September 2021 - Finally Meeting President Johansson and Talking About Remote Areas

Elder East let us know that they'd received a surprise call from the mission office the previous Tuesday morning (31st Aug) letting them know that Zone Conference had been moved to Wednesday and that President Johansson and the APs were getting ready to fly up to Darwin now. This resulted in a busy couple of hours getting everything ready for the next couple of days such as getting an extra mattress for their flat.  

They had lunch with Pres Johansson at which point Elder East realised he was the last missionary to have met him in person, now two months after he'd been in the mission. Elder East described President Johansson as "cool, laid back, and funny."

Elders East and Roberts would spend the rest of the day and Wednesday on trade-offs with the APs. They had the Zone Conference (just the NT missionaries) on the Wednesday, with Elder East conducting the Conference. Other highlights of the several days included the missionaries being allowed to get together for a Chinese dinner on the Tuesday night, interviews with President and a district activity going bowling.  

Elder East said that his interview with President was primarily all about the work in the surrounding areas, especially the outlying regions. It looks like President is going to get them to try and work more with the remote members. 

• Elders East and Roberts are likely to be flown down to Alice Springs in a week to go on trade-offs with the missionaries and members down there. 
• They were fortunate to have the active member from Katherine in attendance at Church in Palmerston last Sunday, so they finally have contact details for them. This will assist with the potential trip to Katherine that President has also been encouraging them to undertake.
• The main active member family that is in Kununurra, the Kajma family, looks like that they're moving back down to Perth, so the Elders are unlikely to get out to Kununurra
• There's also the possibility they might get flown out to Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula. It's over 1000kms from Darwin - an 11-hour drive, so flights are being investigated by the mission. There are several members out in Nhulunbuy, one of whom is scheduled to be in Darwin during the coming week, so they will be catching up with him on Tuesday night. One of them had posted on Facebook about how'd they'd discovered another member family there when they asked about their son's name at daycare. 

Several other dot point items from our chat about the past week:

• They've had a busy week teaching lessons to people in their area.
• The Elders have been volunteered into the Branch choir, with choir practice after Church each Sunday.
• Elder East is starting to get a lot of mosquito bites as the weather starts to get a bit more humid.
• Elder East thinks this will be his last transfer in Darwin, and that he'll transfer back down to SA at the next transfer.
• He has worn out another pair of casual shoes so bought himself another pair of cheap sneakers to try and last him for the rest of his mission. His sneakers get used during service projects and sports nights as well as just on P-Days.
• Several missionaries have commented that Elder East looks to have lost weight since they last saw him or saw pictures of him in the Liahona. He has been more conscious of being healthier, so he's happy that it's noticeable to others. 
• We were able to share with Elder East about how Grandad Yates was able to baptise a lady who was inspired to join the church from the example that Grandma had set when they were all friends many years ago when living up in the North West. Sister Abel from Elder East's home ward happened to be one of the missionaries who helped teach the lady.
• Elder East showed us the spreadsheet he maintains of when the various missionaries in the mission arrive and are due to leave.

Video Chat - 30th August 2021 - Darwin Cracker Night and Combined Branch Trivia Night

Elder East told us a bit more about his new companion, Elder Roberts, who is "cool.". He's from Sydney with a Maori background. His home area has been heavily hit by Covid. Elder Roberts likes playing basketball and also has a particular affinity with a racing arcade game, but hasn't found it yet in Palmerston. Much to Elder East's relief, Elder Roberts knows how to play MTG :)

The previous evening was "Cracker Night" in the NT, with Elder East commenting that there were a number of people letting off fireworks in the surrounding streets and another 2 or 3 groups in open space areas. He said that they went down to a jetty on a nearby river that has views of Darwin. they were hoping to catch some views of some larger public displays being put on in Darwin.  There happened to be a family and young kids that were setting off fireworks down there as well. The fireworks were meant to finish by 11pm, but Elder East said that they went late into the night.

Elder East sent us a bunch of short videos of the fireworks. I joined 4 of them together that feature slow-mo shots he took, and the other is at normal speed.

With the Sisters being transferred out of their Branch, the Elders had a busy week this past week. They were following up on a lot of the people who the Sisters had been teaching or helping and had a lot of teaching appointments. At one point they had 8 lessons scheduled for a single day. (Three ended up not occurring, but they still taught 5 lessons in a day.) Elder East says that they've met lots of cool and crazy ("nice crazy") people. 

The Elders took part in a combined activity night on Friday that was put on by the two Darwin branches - a trivia night.  They were on a table with some of the kids from the branches. Early on in the evening, they were coming first. However, the answers were being done via an online tool which started lagging for them after a while and their answers weren't registering. 

They haven't progressed their plans to go down to Katherine for a weekend yet. It will probably need to wait until things quiet down a bit. They did have a member from Katherine join the recent online broadcasts, but that member's contact details aren't available in the ward list.

President has let the Elders know that he may fly them down to Alice Springs to be able to do trade-offs with the missionaries that recently transferred in there. They are also considering flying the NT missionaries down for the Christmas Conference in December, borders allowing.

The Elders have a busy week ahead:

• Assisting with the Missionary Preparation class being held on Sunday nights;
• They are now participating in Branch Council meetings held on Thursday evenings.
• Zone Conference was scheduled for the coming Friday (3rd Sep). Zone Conferences were now going to be held separately rather than jointly, so it would just be the NT missionaries in the Zone Conference. President Johansson was planning to fly up for Zone Conference (border restrictions allowing.) This will be Elder East's first chance to meet him in person.
• There is a Disability Convention coming up that they will be helping at.

Some other minor dot point trivia from Elder East during the discussion:

• He was trying out new wireless headphones for the call - they weren't very good sound wise
• He has a spreadsheet where he keeps track of those missioanries coming into and leaving the mission.
• He is trying to practice some of his piano playing - he played High On The Mountain Top for us. He's a bit rusty, but we could recognise the tune.
• I let him know to expect a possible package during the week - I told him it was a half-eaten chocolate bar.

Video Chat - 23rd August 2021 - Family History Lockdown and New Companion Elder Roberts

With the Elders being in lockdown from the Monday afternoon until Thursday lunchtime it was a quieter week for the Elders. They finished going through trying to contact all of the members of Katherine Branch by phone. Elder East says that they only ended up having three people respond. One who wasn't interested, one who had moved down to Perth, and so they would help move their Church records down to their new ward, and the Kajma family. The Kajma family remembered our family from when we lived in Perth.

Also during the lockdown, Elder East had spent time working on some of his family history. We were able to help him out in linking up to his extended family in the Family Search application.

The big news however was transfers which was held on the P Day that we spoke. Whilst Elder east was staying in the NT, his companion, Elder Evans was transferred down to South Australia to reopen Victor Harbour and Elder Roberts was transferred up to Darwin to be Elder East's new companion. Elder Roberts is from Sydney and came into the AAM at the same time as Elder East. They were quarantined for 14 days together when they first arrived so already knew each other. Elder Nalesoni, one of Elder East's old companions, also happened to be part of those missionaries who quarantined together. He also transferred up to Darwin this transfers, so they now have 3 of that group of 5 missionaries who quarantined together, now serving up in Darwin.

Elder Roberts was excited to be up in Darwin, whilst Elder Evans was excited to be reopening a new area. Elder East said that President Johansson was moving missionaries out of some of the older areas to reopen areas closed during covid. Besides Victor Harbour, this has also included Alice Springs and Mt Gambier. The Port Pirie missionaries are also being encouraged to go out to Port Augusta and Whyalla, much in the same way that they're being encouraged to get down to Katherine one weekend.

Elder East commented that Elder Guzman, his trainer, was about to go home. he was disappointed that he wasn't going to be able to farewell him in person.

Other notes from the week included:

• The missionaries were coopted to sing a musical item at Church - I Love To See The Temple. They sang the first two verses in English, which Elder East said went well. The third verse was sung in Samoan, which he said went OK. The final verse was sung in Thai, which was "not OK." Apparently, the one missionary who knew how to speak Thai couldn't really sing in Thai.
• They helped teach the Missionary preparation class on Sunday evening. They had five youth from the two branches in attendance which they were happy with.
• They have several investigators who are doing well.
• They found a block of units that have a bunch of street cats. Elder East tried to befriend one, but he said that it's rather skittish.
• Speaking of cats, they went to give an administration to a Church member who was sick in hospital. He gave them money and a charge to feed his cats whilst he is in hospital. I'm pretty sure Elder East would be OK with that. 

Video Chat - 16th August 2021 - Lockdowns and Cane Toads

The immediate news from our chat with Elder East last P day was that Darwin was going into a snap lockdown for that Monday afternoon through to Thursday afternoon. The Elders had been out at the shops around 10:30am that morning and could see long lines at the shops. They joked that there must have been a lockdown coming. They got back to their car and sure enough, got a phone call letting them know that a lockdown was about to start. They had the job of letting the other missionaries in Darwin know the details.

There have been some changes in the other NT missionaries over the last week that have occurred out of the transfer cycle. An Elder had been transferred up to Darwin to stay with the Darwin Elders for 14 days in preparation for heading to the Perth mission. We're unsure how the lockdown will affect those plans noting that they were to try and make it easier for him to comply with WA's strict covid border regulations.

In addition, the Sister Missionaries in the Darwin branch have moved down to Adelaide.

Transfers is scheduled to occur next week (Mon 23rd Aug), but Elder East isn't sure how many changes will occur on that day. There were some new missionaries due to come into the mission, but they've been pushed back by three weeks. he speculated whether maybe some were from overseas as they had a New Zealander arrive last transfer.

A quick coverage of happenings through the previous week:

• President Johansson called them on Tuesday night and spoke to them about getting down to work with the less active families in Katherine one weekend. They are about 60-70 members in the branch but they are spread around hundreds of kilometers. The Elders started working their way through calling member's phone numbers, but of the first 20 or so they called, they didn't have anybody answer their calls.
• They had trade-offs on Thursday and Friday with the Darwin Elders, however, the other Elders weren't well. One had an injured foot whilst the other was feeling sick, so it was a fairly quiet time.
• On Sunday evening they helped with the Missionary Preparation devotional. Elder East said the evening went well. They had about 10 youth in attendance, including some Zooming in from Alice Springs.
• They also had a lesson with a young man (19YO) on Sunday. They'd tried catching up with his Dad earlier in the week - but he'd said it wasn't a good time - they were about to start a D&D session with mates. Elder East would have been in his element. They enjoyed the lesson with his son on Sunday - seeing someone learning about the Gospel for the first time.
• They have also been spending time with a part-member family (couple and son) who have been to Church, had a lesson and come along to the branch sports night as well. 

The final event of note relates to the only photo we got from Elder East this week. He explained that they helped catch a cane toad in a lady's yard during the week. The only problem was what to do with it once they caught it. They didn't want to kill it themselves even though it's a dangerous pest, so they ended up putting it securely in the lady's rubbish bin where it would be assumed to die and then be disposed of.

Video Chat - 9th August 2021 - Helping With A Baptism and Snakes Whilst Teaching

We had our first Monday P Day chat last week and Elder East was able to share with us some photos from the previous Saturday. He and three other Elders had helped with a baptism. The gentleman who was getting baptised only has one leg and is in a wheelchair. The four Elders were able to help him into the water and to be baptised. 

Somebody on Facebook also happened to post up the following picture of the baptism as well. 

With the changeover from Wednesday to Monday P Days it was a shorter week to chat about, but Elder East mentioned some other happenings during the week:

• They provided some service to an older lady by helping to clean out her garage. During the cleanout Elder East found a slow cooker cookbook that she didn't want that she was happy for him to have. He was quite happy about getting a cookbook. 
• One of the people that they've been teaching came along to Church on Sunday.
• They had a meal appointment on Sunday evening.
• He received his package of MtG cards that we'd sent through to him for P Day.
• There is a Missionary Preparation Devotional this coming Sunday (15th Aug) that they were going to be helping with. This ties in with missionary preparation classes that are being started in Darwin which they will be helping with as well. Elder East said that the missionary preparation classes were going to be taught by the only YSA in Darwin.
• The weather in Darwin is getting more humid but has still been nice.
• They haven't tried doorknocking in the evenings yet.

Elder East also shared a story with us that he hadn't told us about when they had trade-offs recently. They were teaching a family on the balcony of the family's home. As they were teaching they could hear movement from the garage nearby. A black-headed python slithered out from the garage about a metre away from them before slithering away. As you can appreciate, they all stopped and watched to see what the snake was going to do when it appeared.

A few other comments from Elder East about their day to day happenings:

• They do have bikes, but only tend to use them to travel when they have a lot of unplanned time, otherwise, it's better to use their car.
• They consider that they have both the largest and smallest areas in the mission. Large in that it covers most of the top of the Northern Territory, but small in that in a practical sense, there are only 5 suburbs around Palmerston that they can travel to and work in. They spend most of their time in only two suburbs, Durack and Woodroffe.
• Elder East was going to try a family favourite recipe - Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas - this week, so we're interested to see how it goes.
• Edler East is happy with how they're doing with their budgeting as a companionship. They're sticking to their budgets and living within their finances - an important skill to learn when you're living away from home.
• The next Transfers is on Monday 23rd August. Elder East would be happy to stay, but he'd like to be able to help reopen some of the country areas like Mildura, Katherine, Kunnunnura or Alice Springs to missionaries.

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. 

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.)