Re-assigned

 On March 14, 2020 I awoke in the night about 4 AM.  Typically, I go right back to sleep, but for some reason I thought to check my email before snuggling back into my bed.  To my shock, there was an email sent late in the night telling me I would receive 6 new missionaries at 9:30 that morning!  No missionaries were expected that day, so I was shocked.  Sleep was no longer an option as I lay in the dark trying to figure out what to do with this unexpected blessing.  At 5:30, Sister Craig rolled over and asked what in the world was I doing sitting in the dark staring into space.  I showed her the email.  Now we were both wide awake.  At 6:31 I phoned my Assistants and said, "Get over to the office as soon as possible."  I told them the Missionary Training Center in Manila (the MTC) was closing because of COVID.  We were receiving 6 missionaries; 5 of them on a temporary basis until they could travel to their permanent assignments. 

We were at the airport before 9:30 to greet our newcomers.  The first to come out of the arrivals area was Sister Princess Aranda.  I was shocked to see her.  Sister Aranda is from Mabini, a small farming town about 45 minutes away.  I had interviewed her for her mission.  She was smart, kind and outgoing.  I was so impressed with her that when I set her apart as a missionary, I told her: "You are so wonderful, I wish you were coming to serve in our mission".  

She greeted me that morning in the traditional Japanese way, with a bow, because she was being trained in the MTC to go to her mission in Japan.  One by one, the 4 temporarily-assigned Sisters bowed as we greeted them because all were training to serve in Japan.  Sister Aranda, normally outgoing and gracious, seemed somewhat upset.  As we visited after returning to the mission compound, she asked me directly: "President did you do this to me?"  I assured her that while we were happy she was here we had not sabotaged her call to Japan.  I told her that it was expected that this was a temporary reassignment and to keep studying Japanese.  15 months later these temporarily-assigned missionaries are still with us.  We are very happy to have our Japanese-called Sisters and our Chilean-called Elder.  

They have now stopped studying Japanese and Spanish.  

They were the first of our missionaries re-assigned because of COVID.  On the day we evacuated our foreign missionaries we had 203 missionaries.  At the end of this next week we will only have 64 missionaries left, (all Filipino) 39 of which are COVID Missionaries (re-assigned).  We have missionaries re-assigned from missions in Africa, New Zealand, United States, Indonesia, Thailand, Chile, Japan and other Philippines missions.  

Sister Aranda was the first of our COVID Missionaries who is from here in the Cagayan Valley.  Now 33 of our missionaries, over half, are from here in the Cagayan Valley, serving in their home mission.  Sister Craig calls Sister Aranda the "test case", as she was the first missionary to be re-assigned to her home mission.  It has worked out so very well.  Sister Aranda was later joined here in our mission by her sister Diwata and also her best friend.  They love serving with us here and we love them a lot.  They speak Ilokano and the other local dialects.  After their missions it will be easy for them to go and visit their converts and the others they grew to love while serving here.  Sister Craig and I will be able to attend their their homecoming talks and weddings if they occur before we go home next year.  Because the majority of our missionaries are now from the Cagayan Valley, I call them the native missionaries and call the others who come from other parts of the Philippines our foreign missionaries! 

The last of the 6 missionaries who arrived that day was Sister Kaio from Samoa.  She is quite shy and very sweet.  She was originally called to serve here in Cauayan and was told she would spend about 6 weeks in the MTC learning Tagalog.  After she had been there only 2 weeks, she like the others in our group of 6, received a knock on her door at 3 AM telling her they were closing the MTC and that she was leaving that day (surprise!!!).  She had to be ready to leave in 1 hour.  She, like the others, was a little shell shocked when when she arrived.  We assigned her a kindly trainer to help her adjust.  Her trainer was an American.  Three days later, her trainer was evacuated to the USA with most foreign missionaries. Sister Kaio was also to be evacuated because she was Samoan.  I will always remember seeing her in the mission compound that day readying to evacuate with the other foreign missionaries. She seemed quite lost and confused after being here for only 3 days.  Just at the last moment before we loaded them onto the buses bound for Manila, word came that they could not get the Samoans home because of travel restrictions in Samoa, so we were not put them on the buses.  Last night, she told me that she really really wanted to get on the bus and go home that day.  

We put Sister Kaio in an apartment with 3 other Polynesian Sisters we could not evacuate home.  Her trainer became Sister Tiatia, a fellow Samoan.  They were locked in their apartments for many weeks under a near total lockdown.  Eventually restrictions eased and we were able to carefully get back to the work of being missionaries.  Sister Kaio still did not know how to speak Tagalog, having missed most of her MTC training.  It was a hard battle for her to master the language.  It took a lot of patience and hard work but she did it.  She loved Sister Tiatia and cried when Sister Tiatia was transferred. Her mother also cried.  As restrictions slowly lifted, she had a marvellous experience and loved being a missionary in spite of the hardships caused by COVID.  Interesting enough our 64 missionaries are now achieving significantly greater success that our 203 pre COVID missionaries did.  COVID has caused many to be more prayerful and thoughtful and therefore more willing to listen to the missionaries.  Our baptisms continue quite high in-spite of declining missionary numbers. 

Sister Kaio arrived in a blaze of COVID glory and has now left the same way.  Unexpectedly, Samoa announced that they would again tighten travel restrictions effective July 1st.  If we did not get her and her cousin Elder Chu Ling home by the end of June, they may not get home for a long time.  The Church arranged for her (and the other Samoans) to return home, even though she was not expected to finish her mission until the end of August.  This morning we tearfully said goodbye.  Sister Craig hugged her  notwithstanding social distancing rules (I may have also hugged Elder Chu Ling) and we put them on a plane for Manila.  They will, after COVID testing tomorrow, board a plane on Tuesday for Dubai (8.5 hours) then catch a connecting flight for Auckland (19 hours).  They will spend the night in an airport lounge in Auckland and then fly to Samoa (3.5 hours).  Once on Samoa they will quarantine.  I get tired just thinking about that.  They leave with our great love.  We are so proud of them; they did awesome work here.  She has learned that she can do hard things, and handle whatever comes her way.  

We will be able to enjoy Sister Aranda and her batch mates a couple of more weeks, and our Elder re-assigned from Chile for a few more months before they also leave us for home.  We could not be more proud of all of them.

There is something special about being a COVID missionary.  Yes it is very hard at times, but they learn to be resilient, flexible and creative.   They have learned new ways to do missionary work.  During COVID you cannot knock on doors or contact people in the streets.  The new ways we have learned is why we are being so successful.  The pandemic has forced us to abandon the old ways of doing things and find better ways.  It has also taught us so very much.  One thing we have learned over and over again is when the hard times come (and they do), get on your knees and ask God for help.  He does help.  He loves to help. Sometimes He calms the storm and sometimes He just calms us.  I would not trade being a Mission President during this unique time for anything.  I has been, in a strange way, wonderful. 

POSTSCRIPT June 27th, 2021

Last Thursday at 1 AM, after a 12-hour van ride from Manila, we received Sister Kaio and Elder Chu Ling back into the mission.  They had met all requirements of 3 countries to allow them to travel home but the airline created some of its own requirements to permit travel on their planes, which requirements were not properly communicated.  The result was that they were refused from boarding the plane.  We hope to get them on another repatriation flight soon....hopefully.  Before they are able to return home, Samoa will require that they be fully vaccinated for COVID.  That is a reasonable requirement, but sadly no vaccine is available for them here at this time.  It has been a frustrating experience, but our two Samoans are taking it all in stride.  Many would be angry but not these two.  While they are disappointed, they are happy to continue.  They are back with companions and working hard.  I suggested to them that God has returned them to us for a reason and to find that reason.  Perhaps it is someone to teach that needs their personality and abilities.  Perhaps it is another missionary who needs their understanding shoulders to lean upon.  Perhaps they need one more experience.  I do not know the reason, but I know God does, and they need to find that reason.  We love these two fine missionaries and in fact all of "our" missionaries.