Sunday,
March 29th was our third week without gathering for church
meetings. We miss the fellowship of the
saints. We enjoy our small sacrament
service together. We use some pita
bread, and have extra large pieces in order to give us more to chew on, which
is a physical way to extend our meditation.
RaDene made a great effort to put together some packages of scriptures
and small gifts, beautifully wrapped, for the adults and kids in each our
children’s families. They represented
each day of the last week of Christ’s life on earth. Her creativity and enthusiasm are the ribbons
that tie our family together. We were
able to conclude our day with a video conference with our adult kids. We crave keeping up a little, with what is
going on in their lives. We have found
that trying to have a video conference with grandkids--babies and pre-schoolers
is fun, if in short, spontaneous bursts, but too chaotic to accomplish much
more than blowing kisses.
On
Tuesday, March 31st I made a pretty epic tour around the Cape
Girardeau Zone. That is the southern leg
of the mission, taking in a good deal of southern Missouri. It was a reminder of how remote some teaching
areas are, and why you just can’t often run out to some places. You really need to bundle the reasons to go,
which of course, makes them even longer adventures when you do. I first went to the heart of the zone, the
city of Cape Girardeau. Some senior
missionaries had left from there several weeks ago. I had some young missionaries look after
things while things were so crazy with the COVID-19 departures. But it really was time to get down there and
see what needed to be done to close the apartment. Some sisters living nearby had their eyes on
a few items in the apartment, and I was more than happy to let them have
whatever they could use. The mission
really doesn’t have the capacity to store full apartment’s worth of
furnishings, and in the current environment, the charities aren’t open to
receive donations. And anyway, beds are
not acceptable anyway for sanitation concerns.
What to do with senior apartment large beds is a problem, but not one
the young missionaries can solve. They
can swap out couches, broken dressers and tables, and other things that are
typically nicer in the senior apartments.
And while there, I made the usual rounds of fixing lights and blinds,
checking alarms, and generally addressing whatever is on the missionaries’
minds. And I feel good about praying
with them before I depart.
The
next stop was Sikeston, home of the Lambert Café and “throw’d rolls.” It’s closed though, so no stopping for
comfort food. I took a new elder a bag
that he had left at the mission office when his trainer came to pick him up the
week before, helped them with some shower and linoleum repairs, and generally
tried to encourage them that they were not forgotten down there. Then I was off to Poplar Bluff, on the edge
of the Ozarks. Sikeston is pretty flat
farm land. By the time you get to Poplar
Bluff, the rolling hills have become quite a bit higher, and beautifully
forested. The elders here needed desk
chairs, and since they only had one broken one, I agreed. The apartment itself was surprisingly nice,
with a townhouse feel to it. One of the
elders here is famous for bringing brownies to any meeting he goes to. I’m a fan of his. Perhaps the prettiest drive in Missouri is
through the Ozarks between Poplar Bluff, northward to Farmington. The beautiful pine forests, rolling hills,
rocky outcroppings, rivers, and lakes are postcard pretty. And the highway was a wide, divided,
four-lane road, easy to drive.
Particularly because I am sure I didn’t see more than a dozen car in two
hours of driving.
In
Farmington, I fixed a bathroom fan, noted a missing kitchen chair for next
time, and collected keys for the Farmington North apartment that we was going
to be closed. I like the Farmington
North Apartment, but it just doesn’t seem to make sense to have two sets of
missionaries in such a small unit, borne out by the fact that we have had no
one using it for a couple of months.
It’s a good thing I have a few weeks to get this ready to turn back
in. The sisters that lived here last
have accumulated a lot of stuff to deal with.
By now its getting late, but I need to make one more stop in south St
Louis, an area called Webster Grove.
Even though the apartment was recently vacated by the missionaries
living there as we go through the COVID-19 downsizing, I wouldn’t have stopped
but for a call Sis Hatfield got over the weekend. One of the young sisters that had been
staying there phoned RaDene somewhat sheepishly, saying that she realized on
her plane flight home that she was hungry, and that she couldn’t find her
sandwich. Maybe she had left it in the
apartment? Sure enough, the apartment
was in better than average shape, but on the kitchen counter was a made peanut
butter and Nutella sandwich, together with open jars and bread bag. Nothing was green, but there was plenty of
fresh food in the fridge that needed to go—along with the sandwich. So I made an emergency clean out, noting that
I needed to get back here before long.
These young ladies had been stocked with food. RaDene had worked this whole day in the
office, and when I finally picked her up about 9 pm she left for the first time
that day. She has tremendous stamina and
determination.
Wednesday,
April 1st was almost as big an adventure as the day before. The Housing Assistants and I piled into the
truck and headed for “Mexico.” It is fun
to say that, here in Missouri. The
sisters there had been patiently waiting for the lease to begin in their new
area of Bear Creek North, in Columbia, and that day had finally come. Mexico is a smallish town north and east of
Columbia. It got its name back in 1836
or so, when the New Mexico territory, on the way to Texas, was
established. We loaded everything out of
the two story plus a basement townhouse in Mexico, leaving the washer and dryer
because we didn’t really have room to pack them in. We headed the 45 minutes or so to the north
east part of Columbia and got the keys to the new apartment. It was a real change, being a new, but small
one bedroom apartment. It did have the benefit
of being in a nice, stable complex. It
is too close to I-70 though, and the trucks make more noise than I would
like. It’s tolerable if the doors and
windows are closed. But the sisters seem
content.
On
Friday, April 3rd RaDene joined me on a tour of vacant apartments in
Webster Grove North, Oakville, Fenton, and Rockwood 1st. We’ve learned that as missionaries left, they
didn’t necessarily leave things in condition ready for new missionaries to move
in when they start coming back to the field.
RaDene is helping me develop a checklist of what needs to be done to be
move in ready. Sometimes, it isn’t
much. Maybe just a light cleaning, or
replacement of a missing comforter. But
sometimes we have moved out dressers, beds, or other things to occupied
apartments with specific needs, and sometimes the apartments are cluttered and
in dire need of a deep cleaning.
Developing the schedule of how to get move in ready preparations done is
challenging.
Saturday,
April 4th was the beginning of General Conference. After the Saturday afternoon session, we
loaded the car with mail and face masks to take to Cape Girardeau Zone. We mostly just passed things to the zone leaders
there, but took more mail and masks to Farmington to make our ride home a bit
longer, because it would be difficult for the zone leaders to get to the
Farmington and Poplar Bluff teaching areas.
Farmington and Poplar Bluff would be meeting together on Sunday to spend
one session of conference together. The
Evertons and the Bells helped take masks to other zones in the mission. Our supply of paper masks is thin, and if we
don’t get a resupply, the 1 or 2 masks that we have been able to distribute won’t
be any good for long.
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