Five Months and 40 Trips to the Airport
Dear Family and Friends,
Recently I needed to speak to a nurse at Missionary Medical about something, and she summed it up pretty well when she said, “These are crazy times.” I agree — completely nuts. We are in the midst of getting some of our missionaries ready to return to their original mission assignments. Even though they flooded in, I thought they would drizzle out. We will see. We really don’t know. Every country has different forms, checklists, and requirements regarding visas, COVID, and travel. Some need a negative COVID test result 72-hours before the flight. And if you are wondering how President Heap and I have been trained to handle these situations? Just like most of this wild ride in 2020, zero training. We are all making this up as we go along, even the Mission Department. I hope parents of our missionaries don't read this blog! If they do, I’d like to change this paragraph to read, “We’ve got it all under control.”
While we appreciate that no one knew how missionary work would go forward during a global pandemic, I would at least like to be cced on all the important e-mails. I would also love it if the former mission presidents of our missionaries do not contact them because it usually has unintended consequences. We have a missionary whose former mission president told him that he was “medically ineligible” to return to his original assignment. We contacted both Missionary Medical and our contact in the Mission Department. This missionary is 100% healthy and completely eligible to return if/when the time comes. In the meantime, our elder went on an emotional roller coaster ride wondering what condition he had that he didn’t know about while he felt fine. And he also got to experience a wide range of emotions about why he wouldn’t be able to return when other missionaries could. We haven’t actually heard about any missionaries returning to his particular mission yet, although we know someday they will. Ugh.
While we have kept our senses of humor thus far, Elmer has been pretty good only losing it once or twice. As for me, I occasionally find myself trying to squelch the urge to pinch someone’s head off. Recently I had a mother call me with legitimate concerns about her missionary and that missionary’s adjustment to mission life, the companion, and other worries. I understand that when you feel stress about a child, it’s scary. There’s a saying that parents can only be as happy as their most unhappy child, which often feels true even if it’s not. Then she said that if she had known what missionary life was like out here in 2020 (online finding and teaching, little to no church, no in-person contact with members outside of church, your basic global pandemic, etc.), she would have never encouraged her missionary to go on a mission. She told me that she and her missionary think “it’s just a huge waste of time.” I’m not sure what she expected. I don’t know if it was the right thing or not, but I was nice and tried to be understanding. I arranged for the missionary to get some extra help, which he turned down. What I really wanted to say to this mother was, “Really?! You think that the work of that President Nelson called ‘the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, and the greatest work on earth,’ is a huge waste of time?” Every day, we feel it is a privilege to be here with these wonderful missionaries and to be a part of gathering scattered Israel.
Missionary work has improved significantly since spring with missionaries refocusing on their purpose - why they serve. Missionaries have learned that they can find, teach, serve, and baptize many people if they set aside distractions and embrace the work. Missionary work has always been hard; God is a God of miracles, and we see them. With the change (February 2019) for missionaries being able to call, message, and video chat with their families on preparation days, it is more important than ever for parents and siblings to have tools that encourage and uplift the missionaries rather than having communication that pities them or causes any sort of downward spiral. Overall, it is a good thing, and the vast majority of missionaries are doing well in this COVID environment. Missionaries are not expected to call or video chat with their families every week, which some families don't know. Their preparation days are often very full. I highly recommend that missionary families read and study Adjusting to Missionary Life (available in Gospel Library App) if they really want to help their missionary son or daughter.
As a mission, we ran/jogged/walked the Great Michigan Lansing Mission Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving 🦃. I hear we have some sore missionaries, but I am proud to say I am not sore. Elmer ran it with a strained leg muscle, which made me look good. He was a little disappointed in our time. I was so proud! We also had zone conference with the Lansing and Jackson zones. I made over 100 rolls and bagged them up for the missionaries to take with them at the end. A few said those rolls changed their lives or brought them to tears. The sister training leaders in Kalamazoo put on a fantastic Thanksgiving devotional on Zoom with the help of the Mission Leadership Council. They asked everyone to list something they are thankful for in the mission chat; my rolls made the list. 🥰 While the members are not allowed to drop off meals to the missionaries on a regular basis due to the COVID situation, they were able to provide all 240 missionaries with a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. We are so grateful! Elmer and I made a turkey sandwich and fell into bed. It was a perfect day.
One moment we will never forget was the Friday that President Nelson offered us a remedy for all the hard things we’ve experienced in 2020 - gratitude. He invited the world to unite in prays of gratitude and to turn social media into our personal gratitude journals and said to see if we didn’t feel happier and more at peace at the end of seven days. We were able to watch the live broadcast with over 35 missionaries in the Traverse City zone. I’ll never forget listening to the prophet pray for the world surrounded by the missionaries. I’ll never forget the sweet feeling of knowing that President Nelson is a prophet of God. If you missed it: https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/event/a-special-video-message-of-hope-and-healing-from-the-prophet
One of my favorite things about #GiveThanks was to see all the things for which our family, friends, and missionaries felt thankful. It was a reminder to me that we all have so many blessings and that all the good things in our lives are gifts from God. And I did feel happier and more at peace at the end of the week. Before that week, much of what you found online was negative and divisive. President Nelson invited us to turn it all around with gratitude. I loved it! I love all of you.
Today marks five months in the mission, and we’ve been to the airport 40 times. In normal times, we would likely go twice every six weeks. This month if all goes well (meaning no one misses a flight, gets denied boarding, can't find a driver's license, etc.), we will go 10 more times. Several trips will be before 4:30AM.
I thought I might be able to post to this blog weekly before we got out here. But so far, it’s been more like monthly. I think I am working harder than I ever have before, and then I look at my husband and am amazed by all he does. I will try to do better to write more often! To give you a little glimpse of how some of my days go, the other day I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my glasses. They were bugging me all morning. In the afternoon, I realized I had contact lenses in. I have no memory of putting them in! Yikes.
We love you all and miss you!
President & Sister Heap
Sounds like you are thick in the work and undoubtedly working extra hard having to take on missionaries who had to leave their original missions. I can tell that the great missionaries of the MLM love having you as their mission leaders (and no doubt their grammar has all improved). Love the pictures. Now I will call you six-eyes. Love you both!!
ReplyDeleteLove this post and all the great photos so much, Mom! I'm so impressed with how you all are rising to the unforseen challenges of serving in 2020. Josh is sending you and Dad and all the missionaries some baby power! P.S. I've definitely put my glasses on over my contacts since having Josh. Exhaustion is not good for the brain haha.
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