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 - 18th April 2022 - Mini-Training Companionships with Elders Wolff and Jian

The mission had three new Elders come in on Wednesday (13th Apr) including Elder Wolff, who knows Elder East from Canberra. 

• Two of the new Elders were assigned to go into the Adelaide City branch as Mandarin-speaking missionaries. The existing companionship in the City branch was going to be split with each Elder training one of the new missionaries.  Unfortunately, the City Branch Elders came down with Covid and so were unable to take on the new missionaries when they arrived.
•  Elder Wolff was going up to Darwin, and unfortunately for him, the airline kept canceling and changing his flights. 

The upshot was that Elder Wolff was companions with  Elder East from his arrival on Wednesday until his eventual flight up to Darwin on the Saturday. Meanwhile, the two Mandarin-speaking greenies were in a three-way companionship with Elder Ma’a during that time. Elder East said that he and Elder Wolff got along well. He did joke however that Elder Wolff did struggle to stay awake whilst having to just sit around during some of the long AP-related meetings that Elder East had to go to. He provided the following photo as proof.

After Elder Wolff flew up to Darwin on the Saturday, the three-way companionship with Elder Ma’a was broken up. One of the Mandarin-speaking greenies, Elder Jian, became Elder East’s temporary new companion. Elder Jian is from Sydney and his family comes from Hong Kong, however, he doesn’t know any Mandarin and is pretty much learning the language from scratch.

Elder East commented that they had a really good lesson on Saturday night (16th Apr). They’d received a referral from the Sister missionaries that Elder Wolf and East followed up on on Friday. They were asked to come back on Saturday, which Elder Jian & East did and were able to meet with the family (husband, wife, and sister). The family was Indian from a non-Christian background and the Elders had the opportunity to explain about Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. The family had questions about karma which Elder East said they answered using the Book of Mormon. (Alma 41:15 perhaps? Galatians 6:7 is also relevant.) They invited the family to pray which the wife was willing to do. Elder East said that the Spirit was very strong during the lesson, which they helped the family to identify.

The following day on Easter Sunday the Elders had three people they have been meeting with at Church. Because a number of people were away over Easter, the Elders helped prepare and bless the sacrament. Later in the day, they were able to teach a lesson to one of their investigators.

Elder East commented that they were busy but in a good way. They were busy doing missionary work, not busy doing administrative work, which was making Elder East very happy.

Some other notes from our discussion:

• His workshops at the Zone Conferences during the previous week had gone well.
• There was a baptism on Saturday morning of somebody that Elder Reeves had helped teach when he was on his mission. Elder Reeves (now just Hamish) was able to join in and watch the baptism via Zoom.
• The Easter groceries we’d ordered for Elder East arrived on the Thursday after some initial issues from the delivery driver about where to find the mission office. Elder East said it was the perfect mix of junk vs healthy food.

•  The APs will be accompanying President Johansson up to Darwin next Thursday (22nd Apr) to assist with the Zone Conference for the NT missionaries.
•  The APs had planned to have an activity going Op Shopping with the two companionships in the district the previous P-Day (11th Apr). The Mission President had advised them not to go, so they didn't, even though the other two companionships still met up. Several days later, one of the companionships tested positive for covid and both companionships had to go into isolation.
• Elder Wolff was studying engineering at university before his mission. He suggested to Elder East that he might want to start off part-time at university when he gets back and not overload himself straight away.

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 - 4th April 2022 - Teaching via Video to Mexico

It was back to a regular Monday P Day this week, so it was only 5 days since our last chat, with most of the discussion being on things happening back at home:

• Elder Reeves' Dad has said that he'd like to get baptized. As you'd expect, his family is excited.
• Elder Aiho has gotten engaged. He's been home from his mission for 5 months now.
• We chatted about how Elissa is having some problems at her work, and how I was still sick from Covid.
• They were studying the Passover in Seminary this week and so we talked about different historical versions of the Passover.
• We chatted about General Conference that had just been held with the announcement of 17 new temples being built.

A couple of quick notes from the mission field as well:

• The First Counselor in the Mission Presidency, Elder Raeside has been called as an Area Authority.
• Eight missionaries are coming into the AAM next week - five from New Zealand and 3 greenies. Elder Wolff from Canberra will be one of those greenies.

Elder East also shared that they ended up having a lesson last Wednesday with somebody whom Elder Ma'a had previously taught at the start of his mission. The person in question had moved back to Mexico in the meantime however he and Elder Ma'a reconnected via Facebook. Elder Ma'a and East taught him a lesson via video last Wednesday. He has committed to be baptised and the APs have referred him to the local missionaries in Mexico to continue his gospel lessons.

Even though there wasn't much mission news, Elder East did send us a bunch of photos. 

Given the missionaries, in the above photos photo, we're assuming that this was part of the "Leavers" meeting for those missionaries who were completing their missions last transfer.

We're presuming that this is Elder East's collection of dirt from various towns he's worked in during his mission.

Later in the day Elder East also went suit shopping as he needed a new suit. He contacted us for some feedback on the suits he was trying on. 

Video Chat - 30th March 2022 - Mini-training of Elders Tu'itavake and Rogers

P-Day had been moved to a Wednesday (30th Mar) this week, so it was a Wednesday afternoon video chat for us. It had been a busy week+ for the APs. The previous Tuesday had been Transfers, with all of the usual work involved with ensuring the missionaries ended up at their new assignments. 

On Wednesday (23rd Mar) morning they picked up a new missionary from the airport, Elder Tu'itavake. Unfortunately, his trainer had to get tested for Covid and had to go into isolation. They had to pick up another new Sister from the airport on Wednesday evening. 

Elder Tu'itavake stayed with the APs until Friday when Orientation was held for the three new missionaries arriving this transfer. Elder East said that they took Elder Tu'itavake out tracting on Thursday as well as following up on previous lessons. He said that they had a good time with him during their "Mini-training" session.

On Friday morning they picked up the third new missionary from the airport - Elder Rogers. The rest of Friday was taken up with the orientation of the three new missionaries. 

Elder Rogers would also be staying with the APs over the weekend. The significant thing about Elder Rogers is that he was flying in from the USA. He's actually an Aussie, but living in the USA. Still, he was the first missionary to come out to the AAM from America since the Covid border restrictions had been relaxed.

Elder East commented that the missionaries with international assignments were now getting ready to travel. The AAM has missionaries preparing to reassign to missions in Japan, Italy, and Chile. They're also expecting those originally called to New Zealand missions to be leaving in May, as well as start receiving missionaries from New Zealand.

They had several missionaries recently leave for their assignments in the Perth mission. Don & Tamara, friends of the family are currently serving as a missionary couple in the Australia Perth Mission were quizzing the new arrivals from the AAM to find out if they knew Elder east. The answers of course were "yea". (Technically they actually asked if the missionaries knew Elder Yates, before realizing their mistake and correcting it to Elder East.)

On Monday (28th Mar)  they had a District Council, as well as providing service. I had a note that they provided service at a hospital, and then another note that President Johansson joined them as they did 2½ hours of service working on ladders, but I hadn't noted if they were part of the same service activity. Either way, President Johansson bought them dinner afterward and they all sat in the car eating dinner at an ocean lookout.

On Tuesday (29th Mar) the Elders had three teaching appointments with members, although one ended up canceling. 

The next two days (Thurs 31st Mar and Fri 1st Apr) were going to be Zone Conferences. The APs had been asked by President Johansson to change the way they train during these Conferences. President wants the APs to focus on doing this training by the Spirit, running it more as a workshop rather than "teaching a sermon". Elder East is a bit nervous about how well he'll do.

Video Chat - 21st March 2022 - The Borders Start Opening Up

Another P Day chat with Elder East. Transfers was coming up the next day (22nd Mar) and the big news was that the borders are starting to open up. The AAM would be losing three missionaries as they proceed to their original assignments in Perth.  

There would also be three missionaries going home this transfer including his former companion Elder Nalesoni and Sister Ip. 

There were several new missionaries coming into the mission. One would be arriving on Thursday (24th Mar) and staying overnight with the APs until Friday when his trainer would be arriving. Then on Friday another missionary would be arriving. This one was coming from America although he holds an Aussie passport. He was going to be staying with the APs until Monday (28th Mar). Elder East joked that he should probably count both of the misisoanries who'd be staying with them as additional companions and trainees of his. 

A quick photo of Elders East & Ma'a eating out last week.

A few updates on events during the week:

• They went street contacting in the CBD during trade-offs with members from the City Branch on Thursday.
• On Thursday evening they had dinner and did a lesson with Sister Johansson and the Johnasson family.
• On Saturday they had an appointment with an investigator fall through. It was the same person that Elder Lekias had accompanied them to fellowship with the previous week.
• We commented about how two girls Elder East knew had both just been set apart for their missions - Utopia Kikkert and Emma Davison.
• The APs attended Firle Stake Conference over the weekend. (19th & 20th Mar.) We had Stake Conference in Canberra as well, with Elder Lekias in attendance. We were planning to catch up with him to chat about Elder East, however, we ended up being in quarantine with Covid, so didn't get the chance. We did learn whilst watching the Stake Conference broadcast that Elder Leakias and President Johansson had been mission companions serving in Christchurch together.

Elder East shared with us several photos during our chat.

Elders East and Ma'a joined Sister Bridge and her trainee, Sister Denton, to help provide some service on Saturday morning. They joined in with some members from Onkaparinga Ward that Elder East knew in helping somebody to move house. The other three missionaries apart from Sister Denton are all in the last few months of their mission and Elder East said they were joking with Sister Denton about the fact they were all going home whilst she's only starting her mission.  

There were also several photos from a District Meeting during the week. A member who runs a donut shop had provided donuts for the missionaries.

The final photo he sent us was of a waterfall and lake. The APs were doing some location scouting for a video to be made around the "Waters of Mormon" and this looks like a candidate to be used.