For P-Day the district (and the Grants) went on a hike to Morialta Falls in the Morialta Conservation Park. This is the same Conservation area that President Marquis took the Elders to when they finished quarantine. Elder East said that they took a different, longer hiking route this time. Part of the highlight of the hike was having an echidna crossing a river towards them.
Elder East is scheduled to go through the Adelaide Temple on the evening of Wednesday 2nd September. He had his Temple Recommend interview with President Marquis last Sunday which he quite enjoyed. He was encouraged and reassured by President Marquis of Elder East's worthiness and preparation to go through the temple. Elder East thinks that there will be 2 other Elders and possibly 1 or 2 Sisters going through the Temple at the same time. One of them was an Elder in his online MTC, but he was in a different district and Elder East didn't know him very well.
Their escape room activity at Adelaide Adventure Rooms on P-Day last week was fun. The scenario was that it was a jailbreak, with them handcuffed to a bench in different cells. They managed to finish with about 15 minutes to go. Elder East said that Elder De Guzman was really good at picking locks which helped them in the first part of the challenge. Elder East was able to show off his geographical knowledge in the puzzle in the last part of the challenge. It involved trying to match postcards and plane tickets to locations throughout the world. Elder East would have been a natural at that, and the other missionaries were apparently impressed.
Elder East is getting a bit tired of the same old wraps he was making for meals and has bought some different sauces and jalapenos to "spice things up" a bit. They have been having some variety with pasta too, but he also says that he's eating too much junk food. We were surprised by this, but he explained that the constant backwards and forwards to the flat for meals was becoming too time-consuming and so they were starting to eat out more. He did point out proudly that they had bought vegetables last week. Hadn't used them yet, but they had bought them.
Tomorrow (Thursday) there will be a combined Five Mission (ie five Australian missions) Conference with a member of the Seventy and the Presiding Bishopric speaking to them. (He had thought it was going to be last Monday, but he got the date wrong.) Mum explained that the Presiding Bishopric focuses a lot on the service given by the Church around the world. She spoke of how her Mission President (Glen L Pace) had been in the Presiding Bishopric and had gone to Ethiopia in the 80's to see how the Church could assist during the famine. Elder East mentioned that they were teaching somebody from Ethiopia at the moment.
Their finding and teaching are still a bit haphazard. Having finished going through old investigators in their area book, they are focusing on those who didn't answer or those who were too busy when previously contacted. Unfortunately, they're not currently allowed to street contact, tract or use any other finding method in public, and there are very few members to try and work with. Most of their discussions last week, including six scheduled for last Friday fell through. They have managed to teach three discussions so far this week. They have one lady they've taught twice that they're trying to get a French BoM for. Another person they've always managed to teach in person at the chapel. They also taught a lesson to a member. Elder East says that he's working on learning to ask questions that help the individuals apply the gospel to themselves.
They're still going running in the mornings, but not on P-days, Sundays or in the rain. Elder East is also trying to do some additional exercise in the afternoons - "muscle stuff". He has bought himself some more t-shirts and shorts for running/exercising.
For his current personal study, he has taken up a challenge by the Stake President to read the Book of Mormon before the next Stake Conference. He's currently in Mosiah. He's been supplementing some of his studies by listening to the related BYU Round Table scripture discussions that I loaded onto his phone before departure. He's enjoying re-discovering concepts and doctrines that he's learnt, but which are now popping out at him in the scriptures. One example this week was studying more about the concept of the First Resurrection.
Because of the irregular movements of missionaries in and out of the mission due to Covid-19 restrictions, transfers aren't as scheduled or regular as they used to be. There will likely be a mini-transfer tomorrow for the Sisters coming out of quarantine. Elder East believes there may be a companionship of sister missionaries assigned to the Adelaide City Branch. In other transfer news, Elder Bataar was replaced by Elder Lwin from Myanmar who has trained seven times! Their current District Leader is being transferred out today, which Elder East is sad about. He believes that Elder Reeves' three-way companionship is about to be split down to a regular companionship.
He is enjoying the Sacrament meetings, even though none of the people they invited to Church came along this week. He's really enjoying the Sunday School lessons in the Branch. The Sunday School teacher is a former mission president and is a good teacher. There was an investigator that brought himself along to Church this week after having seen the Book of Mormon play.
I sent Elder East some photos of himself when he was 4 years old. he was with several statues from along North Terrace in Adelaide when we drove across the Nullarbor in 2006. I checked out the location of the statues and they are literally less than 200 metres across the road from the Adelaide City Branch chapel. I told him he needed to take some modern photos of himself with the statues.
Dot point notes:
- We spoke about Sister missionaries in Houston that were recently broken into and stabbed by a neighbor.
- Some discussion about major happenings in world news.
- He had less emails to respond to this week - Alex, Jewel and Kendall
- He's not feeling homesick (for us at least)
- Although both Elders in a companionship have phones, there is just a single SIM card that belongs to the area. The SIM card is primarily kept by the senior companion but swapped as needed.
- He's gotten himself some "rule-compliant" socks.
- He seems to be adjusting better to the missionary lifestyle of living with somebody else.
- Mum asked him when he felt the Spirit throughout the week. He responded whilst teaching lessons and during the Temple Recommend interview with President Marquis.
[Late update: We received a happy message from Elder East later in the evening, letting us know that they had taught the investigator who brought himself to Church on Sunday. Not only had they taught him, but they had committed him to baptism. Elder East wrote "He's been prepared. He's done his research and he's willing to [keep the commandments]. [His baptism is scheduled for] October 31st." The Elders understand that's a long way off and that there will be challenges ahead, but it's exciting for them.]
