Intruder!

Normally the streets here are so busy they are almost impassable.  Not nowadays.  

I have never before kept a cellphone or any electronics in my bedroom.  As a Mission President I am required to, because occasionally “bad calls” come in the middle of the night.  I hate “bad calls”. 

This week I got one of those “bad calls”.  At 1:45 AM I get a text from three of my beautiful sisters living in Roxas:  “There is an intruder in our apartment”.......“HELP!"  Roxas is about a one hour drive from us and with the curfews because of COVID-19, I would be arrested even if I tried to get there to help.   I text back, “Call the police." The response:  “We can’t. He will hear us”.  They were hiding under two blankets so he could not see the light from their cell phone.  They could see his light through the decorative screen at the top of the bedroom wall.  There is no 911 in the Cauayan area, so I tell them I will get someone there.....who?   We have 5 Elders in an apartment just about a mile away, in the same town.  Could they get there in time?  Would they get arrested because of breaking curfew?  Still, they were the best option, so I called.  I got them running there just as fast as they could go.  I called back in ten minutes:  “Are you there yet?"  They were really fast, so they were almost there and were just beside the police station.  “Elders, three keep running, the other two get the police!”  A few minutes later, ten police officers and five Elders burst through the front door.  OK, that was good, I could at least now exhale.

The intruder: a thief had seen a weak spot in the roof, crawled in it and let himself into the kitchen through the attic access hole in the ceiling.  He had heard the police amassing outside the door and fled.  He fled so fast he was compelled to leave his bicycle behind (few own cars here).

My sisters were safe, but noticeably shaken.  We moved them into the nearby Stake Center for the night.  Church buildings here are like Fort Knox; they have thick bars on all windows and doors.  They could feel safe there.  They were so frightened that they could not fall asleep until 5 AM  ( I fared much better than them; I managed to fall asleep at 3:45 AM).  I let them sleep in.

This bus terminal usually has 5 to 15 buses at all times and hundreds of people coming and going.  Not nowadays.

As you can see, while most people are bored to death because of the quarantine required by COVID-19 virus, that is not our experience.  We watch everyday to see how our evacuated foreign missionaries are doing, we work to encourage and teach and plan for the missionaries that remain,  and also find other amusements.

This week I walked into the house to find Donna weeping.  Alarmed, I asked her what was wrong (hoping her answer doesn’t start with the word “You”)!  One of our beautiful sisters from Papua New Guinea was just 3 weeks short of finishing her mission when the evacuation of all foreign missionaries was ordered.  She took the bus to Manila with the foreign missionaries on March 18.  6 days later, she, with her fellow missionaries from Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu flew out of Manila for home via Singapore.  While waiting for their connecting flight in Singapore, Papua New Guinea closed it’s airport and it’s borders to everyone, including citizens abroad.  They were trapped.  They could not go home and they were not allowed to return to Manila.  They lived in the airport for about 3 weeks. The airport kindly gave them a room with beds and provided food.  After a few days, they allowed the Singapore Mission President to come see them and to bring them food.  They waited, and read and prayed.  Eventually, the Church, by working with the two governments, received approval to move them to an apartment on the grounds of the Singapore Mission home, where they would be more comfortable.  They lived there for two more weeks. The day I found Donna weeping, the news came that the Church had received permission for them to go home, and booked a plane from Africa that could fly them home at last.  The Sisters posted a video of them singing, "God Be With You Til We Meet Again." Donna was so happy she wept.

The fruit here is remarkable.  I love yellow watermelon.

The other exciting thing for us this week was that our smartphones arrived and were delivered to all our missionaries.  Quarantine is hard enough for them being away from home.  Smartphones will make such a huge difference for them.  Have you ever tried to teach a lesson with an analog phone?  It is hard and wearing.  I have done two complete rounds of interviewing my missionaries by analog phone.  It is hard.  After five or six hours of teaching and interviewing people when you cannot see their faces, you are not happy or fulfilled (and neither is the person you taught or interviewed).  This week was completely different.  My Assistants taught a lesson on video chat just after getting their smart phones and brought into the lesson some of the foreign Elders who had previously taught the family.  It was great.  The family loved it and so did my missionaries (the ones in the USA and the ones here).   Today we had a mission-wide devotional with every missionary in our mission in attendance by video chat.  It was so fun to see their faces again!  I love them and resent when I cannot be with them.  They are so wonderful.

missionwide devotional

Bored?  Not at all.  Praying the quarantine will end? ...definitely yes.  The Lord gives us trials to mold and build us, BUT he also helps us through them.  As you can see, he is sparing us from boredom.  We will get through this, But only with the Lords help.  While we do not know the plan, we can know and trust the planner.  He does have a plan!