Russell and Eileen's Church Missions: RESTORATION AND RESTRICTIONS

President Russell M. Nelson has asked all of us to prepare for April Conference by immersing ourselves in the glorious light of the Restoration! We did just that in Zone Conference this past week. On both Wednesday and Thursday approximately 70 missionaries came together each day in the Antipolo stake center to be edified and inspired through the message of the Restoration. Missionaries were challenged by President Alder a couple of months ago to study about the Restoration and invited us to find a creative way to share our feelings with our fellow missionaries at Zone Conference. I (Eileen) was able to attend both full days of presentations and came away uplifted, with a desire to increase my study of the Restoration and of the life of Joseph Smith. I was amazed by the remarkable talents shared by our missionaries. Artwork was done, poems were read, and several original musical numbers were performed. I determined a few weeks ago that I would like to share a musical number. During the time I was convalescing from my pneumonia, I was able to scour the internet looking for piano solos. I finally decided to play a medley consisting of three songs, “Oh, how Lovely was the Morning,” “Praise to the Man” and “We Thank Thee oh God for a Prophet.” I was excited to find a video online consisting of short clips of Joseph Smith’s life, which were matched with the music I had chosen. The video started at the First Vision and continued with snippets of his life through the martyrdom, and then ended with just a few seconds of him kneeling in the grove. It was a wonderful way for me to reflect on the life of Joseph Smith. If you are interested in viewing the talents of our missionaries you can view them on the Philippines Antipolo Mission site on Facebook.

It seems like Zone Conference was a haven away from the chaos which has been occurring due to the Coronavirus. I have done a great deal of reading on this illness over the last several weeks. I am not sure if my acute interest is because I was in the hospital recently with a respiratory infection, or if I just feel like it is important for me as the mission nurse to stay up to date on medical news, I view the news several times a day. At night when I can’t sleep, I open the news online to see what the current status is. It seems like the news changes quickly, sometimes from hour to hour. A couple of weeks ago during the night I felt impressed that our missionaries should be advised to do three things: 1) Have a supply of food to get them through a possible quarantine; 2) Have enough medications on hand so that if they are sick they won’t need to run to a pharmacy; and 3) Stop shaking hands. This last week saw direction from our Area Presidency implementing these ideas, and just in time. Thursday evening President Duterte, who is the president of the Philippines, gave a news conference stating that the Metro Manila area would be put under “lockdown” starting Sunday March 15^that 12:01 AM. Even before he gave his news conference, panic had set in. Stores were packed with shoppers. The grocery store where we shop had people triple parked. Fortunately we had gone to the store the week previously and stocked up on some food items after feeling prompted to do so. You can’t put very much food in an apartment as small as ours, but we have enough that we wouldn’t starve if we couldn’t go to the store. The Filipino government is trying to take drastic measures to stop the spread of the virus. Two of our six zones are now within the lockdown area. The only people that can go in and out of the Metro Manila area are those with valid work IDs requiring them to work. Malls and restaurants have closed down. Our missionaries who are in the contained area are to a degree on their own for at least another month. It also means that missionaries who get sick outside of the contained zone, will not be able to visit the doctor in the area where I usually send the more serious cases. It gives me cause to seriously reflect how badly a missionary needs to go to the doctor.

This week was supposed to be transfer day on Wednesday, which means we would get a new batch of missionaries. Since the missionaries were all at the MTC which is in the lockdown area, they were sent spur-of-the-moment to our mission yesterday. A lot of effort was made to get transfers done five days early.

Friday morning our office couple Elder and Sister Bills, were informed that they and some other senior missionaries would be leaving the Philippines on Saturday evening for precautionary medical reasons. This decision was made at the Area level. Honestly, I thought we would be going home with my having recently had pneumonia. I guess as Russell said, we made the “medical cut” - at least this time around. What now has happened is that all the duties which Elder Bills did previously are now being coordinated by Russell to make sure they get done. Russell spent all day at the office on Saturday with Elder Bills, trying to learn in a day what is usually taught in a month; and we both spent the day at the office today trying to complete needed tasks. We weren’t alone at the office as missionaries were coming and going all day long with the accelerated transfer schedule.

As I was going into the office today thinking how crazy it seems like life is getting, I was notified by email about a new video put out by our prophet just this morning. As I viewed it, I was gratified for the presence of a prophet on earth. He brings peace and hope to what can sometimes be considered a chaotic existence. I know our Heavenly Father loves his children and is aware of their needs. I am not sure how the future will play out. I just know I have to put my trust in Him.