Covid-19 will bend us (but not break us)
We have been asked by several people how the coronavirus pandemic has affected our mission. Here are a few ways that we have been affected:
The report listed above was witten by Sister Folland a little over a week ago. She intended to finish and post last week, but things got crazy with transfers so it never happened. I will try to fill in the events of last week. We had 10 missionaries complete their missions and they started traveling into misson headquarters Sunday night. I am responsible to provde temporary housing for them. We have 6 flats reserved for that purpose and at transfer time, I am busy preparing the accomodations. Between the outgoing and imcoming missionaries, I put up 35 missionaries throughout the week. It is quite the challenge to keep the flats presentable, but I have been harping on them for months and it seems to be paying off. I didn't have nearly as much cleaning to do this time.
The whole transfer week went pretty smoothly considering all of the disruptions related to COVID-19. All of the missionaries we received were trained at the MTC in Auckland so they were already in the country. There we two scheduled to come in from Provo but they were re-assigned to their home countries.
On Thursday, the actual transfer day, everything started out like usual. The missionaries involved with the transfer come into the mission office from all over the mission to pick up their companions. Usually, they have a short meeting with the mission president before heading out with their new companions to their areas of service. Well, in the morning, missionaries began to arrive and head up to the Mendenhall building ampitheater for the meeting as usual. I was out with Elder Clayton directing traffic in the parking lot. All of a sudden, the missionaries started returning to the parking lot. Sister Clayton called down and said all "heck" had broken loose and that the transfer meeting was cancelled. As it turned out, one of the women who works in the distribution center, located in the same building had a confirmed exposure to the virus and so everyone kind of freaked out at this large gathering of missionaries. They all ended up finding their new companions and heading out amid some confusion. Once they all left things settled down.
That afternoon, the New Zealand prime minister announced that at 11:59, the borders would be closed to all foreign travelers and that only New Zealand residents and citizens would be allowed in the country. As a result, a senior missionary sister who was to arrive from the US on Saturday was unable to come to the mission and shortly thereafter, the senior couples to arrive in the next month also had their arrivals canceled. The week before, I was quite stressed that I was going to need to find 2 flats to house these new missionaries and was working hard to find suitable places for them. I finally was able to get the flats lined up, but within a few hours, the needs all changed and I had to pull out of the deals. Luckily, we hadn't signed the leases on them yet.
In the past few days, the US state department has recommended all US citizens over seas should return home immediatly, or plan to remain abroad indefinately. The Church also announced that many missionaries would be returned to their native countries to be reassigned or released early. These announcements have left us uncertain if we will be sent home or not. We spoke to the mission president this morning and at the present time, we will be staying-but that could change at any time. We are moving forward with faith that we will be able to complete our mission as scheduled. We feel very secure in our situation here and feel we are needed to help keep some stability in the mission in the midst of turbulence. We will get up and go to work as usual and carry on the buisiness of the mission until we hear otherwise.
We hope you are all well and have faith the Lord will look out for us all and comfort us in these challenging times. We know He is aware of each of us and of the current conditions in the world. If we all work together, things will soon calm down. You are all in our prayers.
PS We went on a nice hike on Saturday to get some fresh air and then went to a berry farm to get blueberries and raspberries and some "real fruit ice cream" a favorite treat here:
* It has been reported that seven people here in New Zealand have tested positive for the virus.
*Leading up to our transfer week, which is this week, we have had some of our incoming missionaries receive temporary assignments in their country of residence rather than coming to NZ as planned. We also received notice that we would receive several missionaries to serve temporarily in our mission. Just yesterday, two of those missionaries needed to stay in the USA because NZ enacted a two week self-quarantine for anyone entering the country. We think we finally have all the changes in----maybe.......
*The Church has recommended that we have a 2 week supply of food essentials for each set of missionaries. The food would be kept in their
apartment in case it was needed. We decided as office staff and assistants, along with our mission president, that we would compile a list of essentials, create a basket on line at a grocery store,
order for each companionship, and then
have each companionship pick up their items.
*Members of the Church worldwide are to have home church services until
further notice. Our temples are closed for the time being. Our prophet and the Twelve Apostles made changes to our programs and church curriculum
over 15 months ago to incorporate a more home-centered, church-supported
gospel learning. Our faith is strengthened even more as we see our prophet receive revelation from God to prepare us for perilous times.
The report listed above was witten by Sister Folland a little over a week ago. She intended to finish and post last week, but things got crazy with transfers so it never happened. I will try to fill in the events of last week. We had 10 missionaries complete their missions and they started traveling into misson headquarters Sunday night. I am responsible to provde temporary housing for them. We have 6 flats reserved for that purpose and at transfer time, I am busy preparing the accomodations. Between the outgoing and imcoming missionaries, I put up 35 missionaries throughout the week. It is quite the challenge to keep the flats presentable, but I have been harping on them for months and it seems to be paying off. I didn't have nearly as much cleaning to do this time.
The whole transfer week went pretty smoothly considering all of the disruptions related to COVID-19. All of the missionaries we received were trained at the MTC in Auckland so they were already in the country. There we two scheduled to come in from Provo but they were re-assigned to their home countries.
On Thursday, the actual transfer day, everything started out like usual. The missionaries involved with the transfer come into the mission office from all over the mission to pick up their companions. Usually, they have a short meeting with the mission president before heading out with their new companions to their areas of service. Well, in the morning, missionaries began to arrive and head up to the Mendenhall building ampitheater for the meeting as usual. I was out with Elder Clayton directing traffic in the parking lot. All of a sudden, the missionaries started returning to the parking lot. Sister Clayton called down and said all "heck" had broken loose and that the transfer meeting was cancelled. As it turned out, one of the women who works in the distribution center, located in the same building had a confirmed exposure to the virus and so everyone kind of freaked out at this large gathering of missionaries. They all ended up finding their new companions and heading out amid some confusion. Once they all left things settled down.
That afternoon, the New Zealand prime minister announced that at 11:59, the borders would be closed to all foreign travelers and that only New Zealand residents and citizens would be allowed in the country. As a result, a senior missionary sister who was to arrive from the US on Saturday was unable to come to the mission and shortly thereafter, the senior couples to arrive in the next month also had their arrivals canceled. The week before, I was quite stressed that I was going to need to find 2 flats to house these new missionaries and was working hard to find suitable places for them. I finally was able to get the flats lined up, but within a few hours, the needs all changed and I had to pull out of the deals. Luckily, we hadn't signed the leases on them yet.
In the past few days, the US state department has recommended all US citizens over seas should return home immediatly, or plan to remain abroad indefinately. The Church also announced that many missionaries would be returned to their native countries to be reassigned or released early. These announcements have left us uncertain if we will be sent home or not. We spoke to the mission president this morning and at the present time, we will be staying-but that could change at any time. We are moving forward with faith that we will be able to complete our mission as scheduled. We feel very secure in our situation here and feel we are needed to help keep some stability in the mission in the midst of turbulence. We will get up and go to work as usual and carry on the buisiness of the mission until we hear otherwise.
We hope you are all well and have faith the Lord will look out for us all and comfort us in these challenging times. We know He is aware of each of us and of the current conditions in the world. If we all work together, things will soon calm down. You are all in our prayers.
PS We went on a nice hike on Saturday to get some fresh air and then went to a berry farm to get blueberries and raspberries and some "real fruit ice cream" a favorite treat here:
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